The thing about Hogwarts
by phlanetexplorer
Summary: Percy and Nico have to go to Hogwarts to learn more about wizards. that's all, really. also, there are some other characters from other fandoms, so yeah. have fun reading this red-bull induced fic! (:
1. Chapter 1

Percy

Percy knew he shouldn't have came to London. He should've listened to voice at the back of his mind that said " _don't go to London!"_ but alas, here he was, in the middle of London, trailing behind his mom and carrying shopping bags.

His mom had won some kind of cooking competition, and as a reward, she got a 7-day vacation to London. At first, she had planned to take Paul with her, but she decided to take Percy instead, to " _take your mind off things."_ As she had said.

Now, Percy had nothing against London. The first few days were awesome, until he got an iris-message from Chiron.

Apparently, wizards were real.

And apparently they had a school named after a pig skin disease.

And apparently Percy had to go there.

for a whole year.

Just because he was in London and " _the closest demigod to their school,"_ as Chiron had put it. The school wasn't even in London.

Although, Chiron did tell him that this wasn't a quest, because all he had to do was observe the wizards and report to Chiron about their lifestyle and stuff. Yay.

When he had told his mom this, she had been so guilty that she promised to get him a skateboard (which he had wanted for a long time) when he got home.

He was supposed to stay in the 'leaky cauldron' ( _seriously? Leaky cauldron?)_ until the school year started at September the 1st, and he also had to get some wizarding stuff from somewhere called dragon alley.

"I think it's time to go back to the hotel, honey." he heard his mother say. He nodded, relieved, and started walking towards their hotel, which was not far away, thankfully.

He was exhausted by the time they got to their room. Trained demigod or not, no one could carry countless shopping bags for god-know-how-long without getting tired.

"Percy, I think you should get ready for tomorrow, I don't think you'll have time to pack in the morning."

Oh right.

Percy groaned, but started to gather his stuff nonetheless. Tomorrow was the day he was going to the leaky cauldron.

Yippee.

"I'm going to miss you so much," his mom sniffled as she hugged him tightly. They were at the airport, and his mom was about to go back to America, while he had to stay here in the land of wizards.

"I'll miss you too, mom." he mumbled. He hated goodbyes.

"promise to call me when you get the chance. I don't care about monsters, just call me and tell me that your safe, okay?" she pulled back to look at him in the eyes. Percy nodded.

"I promise."

After saying their final good byes, they departed and each went their separate way.

Only there was one problem.

Percy had no idea where the leaky cauldron was.

His heart sank at this realization.

He looked around frantically, looking for the nearest bathroom, and after spotting one, started running in its direction. Only too late, he realized, it was a ladies' bathroom.

After some screaming, some yelling, some purses being thrown his way and an iris-message with Chiron, he learned the location of the pub.

The leaky cauldron was, for a lack of better word, weird.

The people looked weird, the bartender looked weird, and the place in general looked weird.

it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe.

He made his way over to the weird looking barman, and asked for a room to stay in.

"goin' to Hogwarts, eh? Never seen you around. Where you from?" the barman asked in a gruff voice. Percy froze. He had no idea what to tell the man, as he and Chiron were meant to make up a cover story when he got to the leaky cauldron.

"America." A smooth voice replied, just behind him.

"Holy shit!" Percy exclaimed and spun around, his hand already reaching for riptide and his heart pounding.

There, in all his dark glory, stood Nico.

Nico shot Percy a look that said 'shut up and nod your head so your ignorance won't blow our cover', then turned back to the barman.

"could you please show us to our rooms?"

Just after the barman -who they had learned was named Tom- left, Percy turned to Nico.

"What the _ever loving fluff_ are you doing in London, Nico?"

The son of hades shrugged.

"Chiron told me about your not-quest thing, and I was bored so I decided to join you on your not-quest thing, so I shadow travelled here."

Percy only stared at him disbelievingly.

"you decided to come to London, stay with me for a whole year in a freakin' wizarding school, and leave Will for a year just because you were bored?"

"yep," Nico nodded "also, Will is going to live with his mother this year, so I couldn't stay with him. Although I'll probably iris-message him every day." He shrugged.

"Alright." he nodded. "Do you have a drachma with you? Cause I don't have any more drachmas." Percy asked and mentally slapped himself for being so stupid and not bringing more drachmas with him.

"If you want to call Chiron for our cover story, I already know it." Nico said, as he started to unpack his backpack.

"yeah?"

"yeah. Apparently, we're from a school called Brunner's academy -which, by the way, is a privet academy and no one knows where it is- and the reason we're here is because our dads, who are business-men, got a new job in London and we had to move. Chiron pulled some strings and enrolled us as transfer students in Hogwarts." He snickered at the name.

Percy took a moment to process the information, then clapped his hands and grinned.  
"so, you ready to visit this dragon alley and get our wizarding stuff?"

"Percy, its diagon alley."

"No difference."

 **Hi!**

 **So, this is my first attempt at writing fanfiction, so sorry if its crappy.**

 **I don't really know what to write here so im just gonna point out a few things:**

 **-Dan and Phil will be in the story, along with kurt and blaine from glee.**

 **-the story will mostly be cannon, except for some parts that I have to change for the plot.**

 **-I don't have an updating schedule, so I don't know update times**

 **And that's it.**

 **Please please please tell me what you think of the story so far? Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 2

Percy

Percy started to get worried as soon as he saw that the bartender – _Tom_ \- had led them to a brick wall.

He glanced at Nico, and saw that he too, was reaching for his sword.

But before any of them could do anything, the man started to tap the bricks with a stick.

What.

Percy was just about to ask what _exactly_ the man was doing, when the bricks started to move.

Again, what.

He stared, in awe, as the bricks started to move and form an entrance.

"Diagon alley," Tom beamed. "Well, I gotta go now. Have fun." he said as he started walking back to the leaky cauldron, leaving Percy and Nico gaping at the sight before them.

Diagon alley was magnificent.

There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Percy had never seen before, windows stacked with books, and so much more.

Nico nudged Percy.

"we should find a shop called Ollivanders to get our wands."

"wands?"

"yep."

"but Hecate's kids don't use wands."

"Hecate's kids are not wizards, they're demigods."

"oh."

"c'mon let's ask someone about this ollivanders," nico said as he started to walk towards a scruffy looking man.

"um, excuse me? Can you tell us where the ollivanders wand shop is?" Nico asked, tapping the man on the shoulder.

The man turned around and looked at them weirdly, then pointed at a direction and told them to go that way. He looked like he wanted to ask something, but Nico quickly grabbed Percy's arm and started speed-walking towards their destination.

As they were walking to the shop, Percy realized something.

"we don't have any wizarding money." He stopped in his tracks, making Nico also stop and turn to look at him.

"how do you know they don't accept mortal money?" Nico asked after a few moments.

"they look like they're from the 19th century! I'm pretty sure they have their own currency, one that isn't credit cards and bills." Percy reasoned.

Nico seemed to consider this, then nodded, accepting.

"so we have to find a bank to exchange our money for wizarding currency, right?"

Percy nodded. He looked around for any sign of a bank, and spotted a big white building that looked like it was made out of marble.

"there," he pointed to the direction of the bank. They started walking towards the bank.

They stopped short when they saw the bank workers.

He looked at one of them closely. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard very long fingers. Also, he was about as high as Percy's knee.

"goblins," Nico whispered to him, causing a few of the goblins to turn their heads towards them. Great, they also had super hearing.

"how do you know?" Percy asked incredulously.

"doesn't matter. C'mon, lets exchange the money and get out of here."

They exchanged the money, and got out as fast as they could.

"ok, so let's go find Ollivanders." Nico grinned, which freaked Percy out.

They walked around for about 5 minutes until they found the shop.

The shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.

Inside was a tiny place, empty except for a single chair, and the walls were almost undetectable behind the thousands of boxes that were piled neatly right up to the ceiling. There was a shuffling at the back of the store, before an old man appeared.

The man had silvery eyes and grey hair, and the the way he looked at Percy reminded him of a child of Athena's.

Speaking of children of Athena, Percy already missed Annabeth. He had told her about his not-quest thing, and had been so guilty because of the disappointment in her eyes, although she covered it quickly and made him promise to iris-message her as often as he could. Maybe he could-

He was interrupted from his thoughts by Nico nudging him.

He looked at him, then at the old dude. He looked like he was waiting for an answer. oh.

Stupid ADHD.

"oh. Um, sorry, what?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"which is your wand arm?" the man asked patiently.

 _What the fuck is a wand arm?_ Percy wondered.  
"well, I'm right handed?" it sounded more like a question than an answer.

Then he started measuring him, _everywhere,_ which was not awkward at all. Nope.

After a few more minutes of measuring and mumbling, he went back to the back of the shop.

Percy glanced at Nico and saw him covering his mouth with his hand, presumably to stop himself from laughing out loud.

He rolled his eyes and turned to the back of the shop to see ollivander coming his way with a few boxes.

He opened one of them gave the wand to Percy.

 _that's is? This is my wand?_ Percy thought as he started to examine the wand.

"what are you waiting for? Give it a wave!"

Oh.

Percy waved the wand, but nothing happened. It was at this moment, that Percy considered the possibility of him not being able to do magic. Chiron had told him that because of his godly blood, he would be able to do magic just fine, but now, in this situation, he started to doubt the old centaur.

"ah. Not this one then," Ollivander said, and snatched the wand from Percy's hand. He gave him another one and told him to try again.

They did this a few times, but nothing happened. After each try, Percy started to doubt Chiron even more, until he picked up the last wand.

He felt a warmth in his fingers, and when he waved the wand, gold and blue sparks sot from the tip. Percy was too amazed to do anything.

Ollivander whooped and clapped Percy on the back, telling him that his wand chose him, and that his wand was made of elm wood and had a phoenix feather in it, whatever that meant. He motioned for Nico to come forward.

The same thing happened with Nico, but apparently his wand was made of ash wood and dragon heartstring.

They both gave the man seven of the gold coins, and left the shop.

"so, that's one item off the list." Nico said brightly.

 _It's going to be a looong day.'_ Percy thought as they started walking towards the cauldron shop.

 **Hola!**

 **I don't really know what to say, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask me!**

 **Also, please tell me what you think about it so far, and if you have any suggestions, please tell me (:**

 **Bye!**


	3. Chapter 3

Percy

By the time they finished shopping, they were exhausted. They went back to the leaky cauldron and passed out, barely managing to set an alarm for the next day, so they could get up and get ready for the train ride to Hogwarts.

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP

Percy groaned, and Nico tried to crush the tiny alarm clock with his foot, but sadly, only managed to make it fall under the bed.

"Dammit," he muttered, and threw a pillow at Percy's head. Percy groaned again.

"Get up, or we'll miss the train." He said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

"'m up," Percy mumbled.

He received another lovely pillow to the head.

"up." Nico ordered again, and stood up and stretched. Percy sat up and yawned.

Percy had reached down to pick up the alarm clock that had fallen under the bed, when he noticed the time.

"holy cow Its 10:23!" he exclaimed, standing up so fast that he had to stay still for a moment to steady himself.

Nico's eyes widened, then he ran to the bathroom, yelling _'dibs on the shower!'_

In the meantime, Percy started to gather up their stuff and pack their bags, although that job was soon passed to Nico because as soon as he got out of the shower, Percy threw the bag he was holding in his direction and ran to the shower.

When he got out of the shower, it was 10:41. They grabbed their bags and practically ran down to the pub to pay their rent.

By the time they were done, it was 10:46.

Luckily, the pub wasn't that far from the kings cross station, so when they got in a cab at 10:47, they were at the station at 10:54.

"We should find platform 9 ¾." Nico said, looking around. Percy, too, started looking around, but there was no platform 9 ¾.

Percy was still looking around when he felt Nico tap his shoulder. Percy looked at him, but he only pointed at an old lady standing between platforms 9 and 10.

The lady leaned back, and vanished into thin air.

Say what now?

Percy watched, shocked, as a red-headed lady did the same thing.

A feeling told him that they had found the platform 9 ¾.

Platform 9 ¾ was truly a magical sight to see.

A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, eleven O'clock. Percy looked behind him and saw an archway where the barrier had been, with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it. Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another. The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats.

Percy pulled Nico into the train, in search for an empty compartment. They found one, near the back of the train, and sat in it and just looked around.

They were on a magical train, on their way to a magical school.

Nice.

"so, what do you think Hogwarts will be like?" Nico questioned.

"I don't know. fun, I guess. It is, after all, a magic school." Percy shrugged. Nico looked like he wanted to say something, but the door to their compartment opened, revealing a tall boy, about Percy's age, with pale skin and black hair.

"oh, hi. Can I sit here? This is usually where I sit..." he trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

Nico looked like he wanted to say no, but Percy cut him off with a quick "sure!"

The boy smiled, and sat down next to Percy.

"so, what are your names? I've never seen you two around before." The boy said, looking at them quizzically. He had intense blue eyes.

"I'm Percy, and that's Nico. We're transfer students, so that's why you've never seen us before." Percy introduced them. "what's your name?"

"Phil," the boy smiled, extending his hand for Percy to shake. He took it and gave it a shake. "nice to meet you."

They talked for about 10 minutes, until the door to the compartment opened again.

This time, standing there was a boy, about 15, with black hair and emerald eyes. He looked surprised to see him and Nico.

"hi Phil," he greeted, then turned to Percy and Nico. "erm, hello. Can I sit here? Everywhere is full." He turned his attention back to the Phil guy.

"sure." The Phil guy smiled, which he seemed to do a lot.

Percy glanced over at Nico, and saw him drifting off to sleep. His shadow travel the day before must have tired him more than he thought. He turned his attention back to the new boy.

"so, what's your name?" he asked cheerfully. The guy looked surprised. Phil seemed surprised too.

"Harry potter," the guy said weirdly. "what about you?"

"Percy Jackson. And that's Nico." He nodded towards a now sleeping Nico. "we're transfer students."

"transfer students?"

"yeah. From America."

Harry was looking at them oddly, but thankfully, Phil distracted him.

"so, what house do you think you'll be in?" he asked enthusiastically.

"house?" Percy was confused.

"your Hogwarts house. Don't you know what that is?" harry asked.

"no?"

"well, there are four houses, and you get sorted into one at your first day at Hogwarts, and spend the rest of your time in Hogwarts with your house. The house becomes your family. The houses are Gryffindor, for the brave, Ravenclaw for the smart, Hufflepuff for the loyal and Slytherin for the evil." Harry said the last part darkly.

"Slytherin is not for the evil, harry. Its for the cunning." Phil clarified.

"right."

"the cunning, not the evil!"

"so, what house do you think you'll be in?" harry asked again, turning his attention back to Percy.

"well, I'm pretty sure I'll be in Hufflepuff, and Nico will probably be in slytherin. Or Gryffindor." Percy said. "what house are you in?" he asked harry.

"were both in Gryffindor," he stated.

"cool."

"yeah." Harry nodded. "so, what's your school in America like?"

"it's great! But I can't tell you much about it, cause it's a privet school and I'm not really supposed to say anything about its location and classes." Percy rambled, hoping they would buy his story. They looked convinced.

There was a comfortable silence after that. Phil pulled out a book out of his bag and started reading, and harry just seemed bored.

But Percy was going crazy.

He was tapping his fingers, shaking his leg, shifting in his seat and just couldn't stay still.

You can't put an ADHD kid in a long train ride and except him to sit still.

After a while, the door to the compartment opened. again.

This time, there was a girl and a boy. The girl had bushy brown hair, and brown eyes. The guy had flaming red hair, which reminded Percy of Rachel.

"I'm starving." The red-headed dude declared loudly, waking Nico. then seemed to notice Percy and Nico.

"oh. Um, hi." He stammered, blushing.

"hey," Percy said.

They both took seats, the girl, who had introduced herself as Hermione, sat next to Nico, and the guy, Ron as he had said, sat at the other side of Percy.

"guess who's the slytherin prefect." Ron groaned.

"Malfoy." Harry muttered bitterly. Percy was confused. Who was Malfoy?

As if on cue, the door to the compartment opened. Again. For the fourth time.

This time standing there was a boy with a pale, sharp face, and sleek blond hair.

Behind him were two, gorilla like goons, which percy assumed was meant to be intimidating. Heh.

"what?" Harry said aggressively, before the boy could even open his mouth. So he didn't like him then.

"Manners, Potter, or I'll have to give you a detention," the boy drawled. Percy was liking him less and less.

"You see, I, unlike you, have been made a prefect, which means that I, unlike you, have the power to hand out punishments." Percy was really starting to dislike the guy.

"Yeah," said Harry, "but you, unlike me, are a git, so get out and leave us alone."

Everyone in the compartment laughed, even Nico.

"Tell me, how does it feel being second-best to Weasley, Potter?" the guy asked.

"Shut up, Malfoy," said Hermione sharply. So _this_ was Malfoy.

"I seem to have touched a nerve," said Malfoy, smirking. "Well, just watch yourself, Potter, because I'll be _dogging_ your footsteps in case you step out of line." He snickered. Percy was about to say something, but a new voice beat it to him.

"leave them alone, Draco."

Percy turned his head a bit to see the face of the new voice. From the window near the compartment door he could see a tall boy, with brown hair, standing there with his arms crossed. He was looking at Malfoy expectantly.

Malfoy huffed, but left anyway.

The guy turned to them. He was about to say something, but Harry said "get out."

The guy looked hurt, but left anyway. Percy frowned. He seemed like a nice guy.

"that was uncalled for," Phil said. He, too, was frowning.

Harry shrugged.

"they're slytherins."

Phil looked like he was about the say something, but nico cut him off.

"so, that's Malfoy?" everyone seemed startled, hearing Nico talk for the first time.

"yeah, he's a git." Ron replied.

"who was the second guy? He seemed like an ok guy." He asked.

"that was Dan," Phil replied.

"he's Malfoy's best friend or something. All I know is that he's the only one Malfoy listens to." Harry said. Nico nodded.

The rest of the ride was mostly quiet, save for the occasional small talk.

Boring.

So when Hermione said that they were close and should start putting on their robes, percy almost laughed with joy. Nico looked like he was in going crazy.

ADHD did not cope well with long train rides.

At all.

 **Hi!**

 **So, tell me what you think about it so far (:**

 **And if you have any questions or suggestions, please ask/tell me!**

 **Bye!**


	4. Chapter 4

Harry

When he entered the great hall with the rest of the students, the pink toad was the first thing that he noticed.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Phil found seats together about halfway down the Gryffindor table between Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor House ghost, and Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, who gave Harry an overly friendly greeting that made him quite sure they had stopped talking about him a split second before. He had more important things to worry about, however: He was looking over the students' heads to the staff table that ran along the top wall of the Hall, trying to get a better look at the pink toad.

"She was at my hearing, she works for fudge!" he whispered to Ron and Hermione.

"She works for Fudge?" Hermione repeated, frowning. "What on earth's she doing here, then?"

"Dunno . . ." Hermione scanned the staff table, her eyes narrowed.

"No," she muttered, "no, surely not . . ."

"what?" Ron probed.

"she's the new DADA professor!" Hermione whispered anxiously.

"why would Dumbledore-" harry was cut off by the door of the great hall opening.

A long line of scared-looking first years, plus Percy and Nico, (who looked very out of place) entered, led by Professor McGonagall, who was carrying a stool and the sorting hat.

The buzz of talk in the Great Hall faded away. Everyone was looking at Percy and Nico, who looked like they were praying that the ground would open up and swallow them.

They lined up in front of the staff table facing the rest of the students, and Professor McGonagall placed the stool carefully in front of them, then stood back.

Then the rip near the hat's brim opened like a mouth and the Sorting Hat burst into song:

 _In times of old when I was new_

 _And Hogwarts barely started_

 _The founders of our noble school_

 _Thought never to be parted:_

 _United by a common goal,_

 _They had the selfsame yearning,_

 _To make the world's best magic school_

 _And pass along their learning._

 _"_ _Together we will build and teach!"_

 _The four good friends decided_

 _And never did they dream that they_

 _Might someday be divided,_

 _For were there such friends anywhere_

 _As Slytherin and Gryffndor?_

 _Unless it was the second pair_

 _Of Huffepuff and Ravenclaw?_

 _So how could it have gone so wrong?_

 _How could such friendships fail?_

 _Why, I was there and so can tell_

 _The whole sad, sorry tale._

 _Said Slytherin, "We'll teach just those_

 _Whose ancestry is purest."_

 _Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those_

 _whose Intelligence is surest."_

 _Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach all those_

 _With brave deeds to their name,"_

 _Said Hufflepujf, "I'll teach the lot,_

 _And treat them just the same."_

 _These differences caused little strife_

 _When first they came to light,_

 _For each of the four founders had_

 _A House in which they might_

 _Take only those they wanted, so,_

 _For instance, Slytherin_

 _Took only pure-blood wizards_

 _Of great cunning, just like him,_

 _And only those of sharpest mind_

 _Were taught by Ravenclaw_

 _While the bravest and the boldest_

 _Went to daring Gryffindor._

 _Good Hufflepujf she took the rest,_

 _And taught them all she knew,_

 _Thus the Houses and their founders_

 _Retained friendships firm and true._

 _So Hogwarts worked in harmony_

 _For several happy years,_

 _But then discord crept among us_

 _Feeding on our faults and fears._

 _The Houses that, like pillars four,_

 _Had once held up our school,_

 _Now turned upon each other and,_

 _Divided, sought to rule._

 _And for a while it seemed the school_

 _Must meet an early end,_

 _What with dueling and with fighting_

 _And the clash of friend on friend_

 _And at last there came a morning_

 _When old Slytherin departed_

 _And though the fighting then died_

 _out He left us quite downhearted._

 _And never since the founders four_

 _Were whittled down to three_

 _Have the Houses been united_

 _As they once were meant to be._

 _And now the Sorting Hat is here_

 _And you all know the score:_

 _I sort you into Houses_

 _Because that is what I'm for,_

 _But this year I'll go further,_

 _Listen closely to my song:_

 _Though condemned I am to split you_

 _Still I worry that it's wrong,_

 _Though I must fulfill my duty_

 _And must quarter every year_

 _Still I wonder whether sorting_

 _May not bring the end I fear._

 _Oh, know the perils, read the signs,_

 _The warning history shows,_

 _For our Hogwarts is in danger_

 _From external, deadly foes_

 _And we must unite inside her_

 _Or we'll crumble from within._

 _I have told you, I have warned you…_

 _Let the Sorting now begin._

The hat became motionless once more; applause broke out.

The Sorting Hat usually limited itself to describing the different qualities looked for by each of the four Hogwarts Houses and its own role in sorting them; Harry couldn't remember it ever trying to give the school advice before.

"Has the sorting hat ever given warnings before?" Harry asked nearly headless nick.

"The sorting hat-"

His reply was cut off, however, by professor McGonagall calling out names of the first years.

"Abercrombie, Euan."

Harry zoned out for the most of the sorting, but a name caught his attention.

"Di Angelo, Nico."

Nico quickly walked up to the stool and sat on it, and professor McGonagall placed the sorting hat on his head.

Nico jumped, presumably not expecting the sorting hats voice in his head.

Harry and a few others chuckled.

After a short while, the hat roared: _"SLYTHERIN!"_

The Slytherin table burst into applause, and Nico quickly took the hat off and staggered to the Slytherin table, and sat next to Malfoys friend, Dan.

Harry didn't know much about the Dan kid, but he was Malfoys friend, so that made Harry automatically dislike the guy.

After a few minutes, Percy's name was called.

"Jackson, Perseus."

He sat down, and put the hat on. He, too, jumped a little when he heard the hats voice in his head.

Percy's sorting took way longer than Nico's. Students started whispering to their friends. Harry was confused. Percy had been pretty sure he would be sorted into Hufflepuff.

After what seemed like forever, the sorting hat shouted:

" _GRYFFINDOR!"_

Harry clapped loudly with the rest of Gryffindor House as Percy walked down to their table, looking irritated.

He sat down next to phil.

"hey mate, you ok? You look a little shaken." Phil asked, looking concerned. Sometimes harry wondered why the guy wasn't sorted into Hufflepuff with the amount of kindness he had.

"yeah, I'm fine. Just the hat being annoying." Percy muttered.

Hermione started asking Percy about his school in America, but Percy replied with the same thing he had told harry, that his school was a privet school and he couldn't talk about it. Then, he started asking about Hogwarts, and its classes, to which Hermione replied delightfully.

When the sorting was over, Dumbledore stood up.

"To our newcomers," said Dumbledore in a clear voice, his arms stretched wide and a cheerful smile on his lips, "welcome! To our old hands — welcome back! There is a time for speech making, but this is not it. Tuck in!"

Food appeared out of nowhere on the tables, and Percy, along with a few first years, gasped.

"this is amazing!" Percy exclaimed.

Ron grinned. "I know right."

They dug in.

After dinner was over, Dumbledore stood up again.

"Well, now that we are all digesting another magnificent feast, I beg a few moments of your attention for the usual start-of-term notices," said Dumbledore. "First years ought to know that the forest in the grounds is out of bounds to students — and a few of our older students ought to know by now too."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged smirks.

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me, for what he tells me is the four hundred and sixty-second time, to remind you all that magic is not permitted in corridors between classes, nor are a number of other things, all of which can be checked on the extensive list now fastened to Mr. Filch's office door.

"We have had two changes in staffing this year. We are very pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank, who will be taking Care of Magical Creatures lessons; we are also delighted to introduce Professor Umbridge, our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

There was a round of fairly unenthusiastic applause during which Harry, Ron, and Hermione exchanged slightly panicked looks.

Dumbledore continued, "Tryouts for the House Quidditch teams will take place on the-"

 _"_ _hem, hem,"_ an annoying voice interrupted Dumbledore.

Harry was surprised.

The pink toad, in all her pink glory, stood up. (which really didn't make any change in her height than when she was sitting.)

"why does she look like a pink toad?" percy whispered slowly. Harry quickly stuffed his knuckles in his mouth to prevent himself from laughing out loud.

"Thank you, Headmaster," Professor Umbridge smirked, "for those kind words of welcome."

Her voice was shrill and girly.

"Well, it is lovely to be back at Hogwarts, I must say!" She smiled, revealing very pointed teeth. Harry almost gagged. "And to see such happy little faces looking back at me!"

Harry looked around. No one looked happy.

"I am very much looking forward to getting to know you all, and I'm sure we'll be very good friends!" Students exchanged looks at this; some of them were barely concealing grins.

"The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. The rare gifts with which you were born may come to nothing if not nurtured and honed by careful instruction. The ancient skills unique to the Wizarding community must be passed down through the generations lest we lose them forever. The treasure trove of magical knowledge amassed by our ancestors must be guarded, replenished, and polished by those who have been called to the noble profession of teaching.

"Every headmaster and headmistress of Hogwarts has brought something new to the weighty task of governing this historic school, and that is as it should be-"

Harry couldn't listen anymore. He was bored. He looked around the table, and saw that no one was listening anymore. Save for Hermione and phil.

He looked at Percy, and saw him fidgeting around his seat and tapping his fingers.

"Percy, you ok?" he whispered.

Percy looked at him, then nodded.

"yeah, I have ADHD, and I can't sit still for a long time." He explained. Harry nodded.

After what seemed like forever, the toad, Umbridge, sat down.

Dumbledore clapped. The staff followed his lead, though Harry noticed that several of them clapped only once or twice before stopping. A few students joined in, but before they could applaud properly, Dumbledore stood up again.

"Thank you very much, Professor Umbridge, that was most illuminating," he said, bowing to her. "Now — as I was saying, Quidditch tryouts will be held . . ."

"Yes, it certainly was illuminating," said Hermione in a low voice.

"You're not telling me you enjoyed it?" Ron said quietly, turning a glazed face upon Hermione.

"That was about the dullest speech I've ever heard, and I grew up with Percy."

"what?" Percy asked.

"my brother." Ron clarified.

"oh."

"I said illuminating, not enjoyable," said Hermione. "It explained a lot."

"Did it?" said Percy in surprise.

"There was some important stuff hidden in the speech," said Hermione grimly.

"Was there?" said Ron blankly.

"How about 'progress for progress's sake must be discouraged'? How about 'pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibited'?"

"Well, what does that mean?" said Ron impatiently.

Harry glanced at Percy, but he seemed to have lost interest.

"I'll tell you what it means," said Hermione gloomily. "It means the Ministry's interfering at Hogwarts."

Dumbledore had obviously just dismissed the school, because everyone was standing up ready to leave the Hall. Hermione jumped up, looking flustered.

"Ron, we're supposed to show the first years where to go!"

"Oh yeah," said Ron, who had obviously forgotten. "Hey — hey you lot! Midgets!"

"Ron!"

"Well, they are, they're titchy..."

"I know, but you can't call them midgets… First years!" Hermione called commandingly along the table. "This way, please!"

A group of first years followed Hermione and Ron out of the great hall, leaving the older students.

"hey Perce!" someone called.

Harry looked at the direction of the voice to see Nico coming their way.

"hey, what's up?"

"professor Dumbledore wants to talk to us, come on," he said, and grabbed Percy by the arm and dragged him away.

Harry had said goodnight to Ron and Hermione, but he had stayed in the common room, writing a letter for Sirius, when he heard the portrait hole open.

He quickly hid the paper, and turned to see Percy come into the room, looking around.

"hey." he said, startling him.

"oh, hi harry. What are you doing up?" he asked, sitting in one of the armchairs.

"thinking." Harry replied, a bit too quickly. "so, what did Dumbledore want with you?"

"nothing, really. He just explained some stuff about the school." He yawned. Harry nodded

"what do you think of Hogwarts so far?" he asked.

"it's great! I mean, I didn't expect it to be a castle." Harry smiled "It's really amazing. Annabeth would have loved it…" he mumbled the last part.

"Annabeth?" harry inquired.

"yeah. She would be in love with the architecture. I should call her in the morning…" He said dreamily. Then his eyes widened, and he stood up quickly.

"holy shit!" he exclaimed.

Harry was startled.

"what?!" he asked.

"does this school have a phone?" Percy asked quickly.

"no, technology doesn't work well with magic." Harry responded.

"dammit. How do you send messages then?"

"who do you want to call?"

"my mum. I promised her that I would call her when I got here." Percy was rubbing his face.

"well, you can send her an owl." Harry suggested.

Percy looked at him weirdly.

"what?"

"don't you use owls in America?" harry asked, confused.

"no, we don't. we use IM, which requires something that I don't have right now."

"what does IM stand for?"

"don't know." Percy replied quickly. "anyway, how do you send an owl?"

"well, you write your letter, write the address on it and attach it to the owls' leg. But you should wait till the morning to go to the owlery, cause its forbidden to go out of your common room at night."

Percy nodded, seeming to relax.

"ill write the letter in the morning."

There was a comfortable silence after that, until percy said: "well, I'm off to bed. Can you show me the dormitory?"

"sure, what year are you in?"

"fifth."

"well, you're with me then. Come on, I'll show you to the dorm."

 **Hi!**

 **So, let me clarify something:**

 **Percy is 16 and is in fifth year, and Nico is 14 and in fourth year.**

 **Also, please tell me what you think of the story so far? Thanks!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Harry potter, nor Percy Jackson, the belong to JK Rowling and uncle rick.**


	5. Chapter 5

Harry

The next morning, harry had trouble waking Percy.

He had tried calling his name at first, but Percy hadn't even stirred. Then, he tried shaking him, but to no avail. At first, he was afraid that the guy had died.

But a check on his breathing told him otherwise.

He was stuck.

"do you reckon we should pour water on his face?" he asked phil.

"I don't think that's a good idea…" Phil trailed off. Harry shrugged.

"there's no other way. I've tried everything," he picked up the glass on his bedside table and filled it with water.

He walked up to Percy's bed and poured the water on his face.

He was not expecting the reaction he got.

Percy leapt to his feet with a yelp, his hand going to his pocket with a wild look in his eyes. Once he realized where he was, he looked at harry with an incredulous look.

"what the _fuck,_ dude?" he exclaimed. Harry was taken aback by the swearing and the look in Percy's eyes.

"you weren't waking up! I tried everything I swear," harry said quickly.

Percy's eyes softened. He sighed and ruffled his wet hair.

"next time, push me out of the bed or something if you want to wake me up." He sighed and walked into the bathroom.

"told you so," Phil sang in an annoying voice.

"shut up." Harry said, and proceeded to wake Ron, who was sleeping through all this.

A few minutes later, after an argument between Hermione and the twins about Skiving Snackboxes, they were down at the great hall waiting for their timetables and eating breakfast.

Harry noticed that Percy ate even more food than ron. Without thinking, he blurted out: "do you work out?"

He mentally kicked himself for his stupidness.

Percy looked surprised.

"what?"

"um…you, uh, eat a lot - not that that's bad! -, but you're not fat, and I was just wondering…" he trailed off, rubbing his neck, face ablaze.

"uh, I don't 'work out' like in a gym, but yeah, I do a lot of sports." Percy replied awkwardly.

Thankfully, at that moment, professor McGonagall came to their spot, and handed them their schedules.

"Look at today!" groaned Ron. "History of Magic, double Potions, Divination, and double Defense Against the Dark Arts . . . Binns, Snape, Trelawney, and that Umbridge woman all in one day! I wish Fred and George would hurry up and get those Skiving Snackboxes sorted..."

"Do mine ears deceive me?" said Fred, arriving with George and squeezing onto the bench beside Harry and Percy.

"Hogwarts prefects surely don't wish to skive off lessons?" "Look what we've got today," said Ron grumpily, shoving his schedule into freds face. "That's the worst Monday I've ever seen."

"Fair point, little bro," said Fred, scanning the column.

Harry glanced over at Percy to see his schedule, but saw him squinting at his schedule.

"what's wrong?" harry asked.

"dyslexia," Percy mumbled, still squinting at the paper.

"here, let me help," harry took Percy's schedule.

"History of Magic, double Potions, Divination, and double Defense Against the Dark Arts are todays classes." Harry explained.

"thank you," Percy said gratefully.

"no problem."

He turned back to Ron and the twins, who were discussing O.W.L.s

"D'you reckon it's true this year's going to be really tough? Because of the exams?" harry asked as the twins walked away.

"Oh yeah," said Ron. "Bound to be, isn't it? O.W.L.s are really important, affect the jobs you can apply for and everything. We get career advice too, later this year, Bill told me. So you can choose what N.E.W.T.s you want to do next year."

"Do you know what you want to do after Hogwarts?" Harry asked Hermione, Ron and Phil as they left the Great Hall and set off toward their History of Magic classroom.

"no." Phil muttered, looking around.

"Not really," said Ron

"I don't know," said Hermione. "I mean, if I could take S.P.E.W. further…"

"what about you, Percy?" harry asked quickly.

"huh?"

"what do you want to do after Hogwarts?"

Percy looked uncomfortable.

"oh. Um, I've never really… thought about it." He said.

"oh ok," harry nodded.

They were one of the first ones to arrive at the classroom, so professor binns was not there yet. They chose seats near the back of the classroom and started chatting. Except phil. He left, saying he had to go somewhere before class.

Hermione was explaining the importance of S.P.E.W. to Ron, when Percy interrupted her.

"Oh snap,"

Harry looked up to see what Percy was looking, and saw professor binns, who was floating near his seat reading a book.

"you have a _ghost_ for a teacher?" Percy whispered to Ron, who nodded.

A playful smirk appeared on Percy's face.

"this is going to be fun."

Harry didn't understand.

Harry still didn't understand what Percy had meant when he said that it was going to be fun, but he was starting to.

Throughout the whole class, professor binns looked really uncomfortable, scared even. Harry didn't know why, but it helped make the class less boring,

When the class finished, Percy jumped of his seat and walked over to Nico, leaving harry with Ron and Hermione.

They were about to leave the classroom when Percy called out: "hey harry, where did you say the owlery was?"

 **Hi!**

 **So, todays chapter is a bit shorter. Sorry (:**

 **Please tell me what you think about it so far, and if you have any questions or suggestions, ask/tell me!**

 **Bye!**


	6. Chapter 6

Harry

Harry turned around to see Percy standing there, looking around like a lost puppy.

"you can't go to the owlery now; you'll be late for potions." Hermione explained.

Percy pouted, but nodded nonetheless and started following them with Nico trailing behind him.

They were on their way to dungeons when they bumped in to Cho Chang.

Who wasn't surrounded by giggling girls.

"hello, harry!"

"Hi," said Harry, feeling his face grow hot. "So did you… er… have a good summer?" The moment he had said this he wished he hadn't: Cedric had been Cho's boyfriend and the memory of his death must have affected her holiday almost as badly as it had affected Harry's… Something seemed to tighten in her face, but she said, "Oh, it was all right, you know…"

"Is that a Tornados badge?" Ron demanded suddenly, pointing at the front of Cho's robes, to which a blue badge decorated with a double gold T was pinned.

"You don't support them, do you?"

"support tornados?" Nico asked.

He was ignored.

"Yeah, I do," said Cho.

"support _tornados?_ " he asked again.

"Have you always supported them, or just since they started winning the league?" said Ron, in what Harry considered an unnecessarily accusatory tone of voice. "I've supported them since I was six," said Cho coolly. "Anyway . . . see you, Harry."

She walked away. Hermione waited until Cho was halfway across the courtyard before rounding on Ron. "You are so tactless!"

"What? I only asked her if —"

"Couldn't you tell she wanted to talk to Harry on her own?"

"dude, even I could tell that." Percy said.

Phil joined them as they joined the queue lining up outside Snape's classroom door.

"hey mate. Where have you been?" Percy asked phil.

Phil seemed taken aback by Percy's question, and answered way too quickly for it to be natural.

"o-oh, um… I was taking a walk. Wait, no, going for a walk. No, I mean… never mind. I was walking." He stuttered, his cheeks flushing pink.

Harry raised his eyebrows, unimpressed. He was about to question him more about it, but a voice cut him off.

"well, well. Potter, Granger and Weasley." He spat. He then noticed Percy and Nico. "and the transfers."

"Draco." A voice said warningly. It was the Dan kid again. Harry did not expect Draco to listen to the guy, so he was pleasantly surprised when Draco glared at them and left. It was really out of character for Malfoy.

Harry was about to tell the kid to go away again, but Nico spoke sooner.

"Howell, right?" he asked Dan. so that was his last name.

Dan seemed startled that someone had spoken to him.

"y-yeah," He mumbled. "im really sorry about him," he said more loudly, nodding towards malfoy, who was talking with Pansy Parkinson. "he isn't usually like that."

Harry was about to argue, to tell him that Malfoy was a git, but at that moment, the door to the classroom opened and students started to file into the classroom.

They went to their usual table at the back, with Percy, Phil and Neville in the table in front of them.

"Settle down," said Snape coldly, shutting the door behind him. There was no real need for the call to order; the moment the class had heard the door close, quiet had fallen and all fidgeting stopped. Snape's mere presence was usually enough to ensure a class's silence. "Before we begin today's lesson," said Snape, sweeping over to his desk and staring around at them all, "I think it appropriate to remind you that next June you will be sitting an important examination, during which you will prove how much you have learned about the composition and use of magical potions. Moronic though some of this class undoubtedly are, I expect you to scrape an 'Acceptable' in your O.W.L., or suffer my . . . displeasure."

"O.W.L.?" Percy whispered to Phil, who shushed him

This time his gaze lingered upon Neville, who gulped. "After this year, of course, many of you will cease studying with me," Snape went on. "I take only the very best into my N.E.W.T. Potions class, which means that some of us will certainly be saying good-bye." His eyes rested on Harry and his lip curled. Harry glared back, feeling a pleasure at the idea that he would be able to give up Potions after fifth year. "But we have another year to go before that happy moment of farewell," said Snape softly, "so whether you are intending to attempt N.E.W.T. or not, I advise all of you to concentrate your efforts upon maintaining the high-pass level I have come to expect from my O.W.L. students.

"Today we will be mixing a potion that often comes up at Ordinary Wizarding Level: The Draught of Peace, a potion to calm anxiety and soothe agitation. Be warned: If you are too heavy-handed with the ingredients you will put the drinker into a heavy and sometimes irreversible sleep, so you will need to pay close attention to what you are doing." On Harry's left, Hermione sat up a little straighter, her expression one of the utmost attentiveness. "The ingredients and method" — Snape flicked his wand — "are on the blackboard" — (they appeared there) — "you will find everything you need" — he flicked his wand again — "in the store cupboard" — (the door of the said cupboard sprang open) — "you have an hour and a half… Start."

In front of him, he could hear Percy ask Phil to read the ingredients for him.

The potion was very hard to make. The ingredients had to be added to the cauldron in precisely the right order and quantities; the mixture had to be stirred exactly the right number of times, firstly in clockwise, then in counterclockwise directions; the heat of the flames on which it was simmering had to be lowered to exactly the right level for a specific number of minutes before the final ingredient was added.

"A light silver vapor should now be rising from your potion," called Snape, with ten minutes left to go.

Harrys cauldron was issuing amounts of dark gray steam; Ron's was spitting green sparks, Percy's was yellowish, Phil's was a blueish grey color and Neville's was red.

The surface of Hermione's potion, however, was a shimmering mist of silver vapor, and as Snape swept by he looked down his hooked nose at it without comment, which meant that he could find nothing to criticize. Ha. He looked around the dungeon, and saw that only Hermione and Howell had got their potion right. At Harry's cauldron, however, Snape stopped, looking down at Harry with an awful smirk on his face. "Potter, what is this supposed to be?"

"The Draught of Peace," said Harry tensely.

"Tell me, Potter," said Snape softly, "can you read?" Draco Malfoy laughed. Harry could hear a muffled 'shut up.'

"Yes, I can," said Harry, his fingers clenched tightly around his wand.

"Read the third line of the instructions for me, Potter." Harry squinted at the blackboard; it was not easy to make out the instructions through the haze of multicolored steam now filling the dungeon.

"'Add powdered moonstone, stir three times counterclockwise, allow to simmer for seven minutes, then add two drops of syrup of hellebore.'"

His heart sank. He had not added syrup of hellebore, but had proceeded straight to the fourth line of the instructions after allowing his potion to simmer for seven minutes.

"Did you do everything on the third line, Potter?"

"No," said Harry very quietly.

"I beg your pardon?"

"No,"

said Harry, more loudly. "I forgot the hellebore…"

"I know you did, Potter, which means that this mess is utterly worthless. _Evanesco_."

The contents of Harry's potion vanished.

"Those of you who _have_ managed to read the instructions, fill one flagon with a sample of your potion, label it clearly with your name, and bring it up to my desk for testing," said Snape. "Homework: twelve inches of parchment on the properties of moonstone and its uses in potion-making, to be handed in on Thursday."

"he's a dick." Was the first thing Nico said when he joined them after class, on their way to the great hall.

"agreed." Percy nodded.

"That was really unfair," said Hermione consolingly, sitting down next to harry in the great hall.

"it really was. What's wrong with the guy anyway?" Percy asked.

Harry shrugged.

 **Hi!**

 **Please tell me what you think about the story so far, and if you have any questions/suggestions, feel free to ask/tell me!**

 **Bye!**


	7. Chapter 7

Nico

"why is the potions professor a git?" was the first thing

Nico asked when he sat down next to Dan in the Slytherin table. Malfoy, who was sitting in front of him, answered instead.

"he is not a git. Potter is a git."

"just leave it, Draco. And to answer your question, no one really knows, he just is." Dan shrugged.

"what do we have next?" Nico questioned.

"you have divination," Draco muttered darkly. "with trelawney."

Nico understood why Draco had been bitter about divination when he was within a 10 feet distance of the classroom. The place reeked of perfume.

A thin woman, heavily draped in shawls and glittering with strings of beads, she reminded Nico of some kind of insect, with her glasses hugely magnifying her eyes.

She was busy putting copies of battered, leather-bound books on each of the frail little tables with which her room was littered with when Nico entered the room, but the light cast by the lamps covered by scarves and the low-burning, sickly-scented fire was so dim was that she appeared not to notice him as he took a seat in the shadows. The rest of the class arrived over the next five minutes. Blaise emerged from the trapdoor, looked around carefully, spotted Nico and made directly for him, or as directly as he could while having to wend his way between tables, chairs, and overstuffed poufs.

"Good day," said Professor Trelawney in a misty, dreamy voice. "And welcome back to Divination. I have, of course, been following your fortunes most carefully over the holidays, and am delighted to see that you have all returned to Hogwarts safely — as, of course, I knew you would.

"You will find on the tables before you copies of The Dream Oracle, by Inigo Imago. Dream interpretation is a most important means of divining the future and one that may very probably be tested in your O.W.L. Not, of course, that I believe examination passes or failures are of the remotest importance when it comes to the sacred art of divination. If you have the Seeing Eye, certificates and grades matter very little. However, the headmaster likes you to sit the examination, so . . ." Her voice trailed away delicately, leaving them all in no doubt that Professor Trelawney considered her subject above such sordid matters as examinations.

"Turn, please, to the introduction and read what Imago has to say on the matter of dream interpretation. Then divide into pairs. Use The Dream Oracle to interpret each other's most recent dreams. Carry on."

Nico was liking divination less and less. He turned to Blaise.

"I dreamt that I was swimming." He shuddered.

"you don't like swimming?" Blaise asked curiously.

"something like that. Anyway, dear oracle, am I going to die, live, or be eaten by a giant marshmallow?"

Nico gave up un divination after approximately 20 minutes of sitting in the perfume reeking room. He just couldn't take the insect seriously when she looked him in the eye with her plate sized eyes and told him he should stay away from the dark.

If Dan was here he would probably make some sarcastic remark like " _but professor, Nico_ is _the darkness!"_ but alas, fifth and fourth years were separate.

He hadn't talked to many of the Slytherin beside Dan and Draco, who both seemed like cool guys. Although, Nico didn't understand why Draco acted the way he did when he was with other people. He was way less-dick-like when he was being himself.

Fortunately, the period ended right as Nico was leaning in to take the quill from Blaise to stab himself in the eye.

Although he was not happy when she told them to keep a dream diary for a month.

Harry

"what exactly do you learn in defense against the dark arts? Like, do they shoot spells at you for practice? Do you have to defend yourself?" Percy asked in a rapid pace as they made their way to the DADA class.

"cause I sure as hell am going to die in the first 10 minutes if that's the case. I mean, what kind of sick way of teaching is that? Back in my school there were no things like that. We had combat magic and stuff, not some crazy toad shooting 'dark arts' at you! I mean what if-" he continued on without waiting for a reply, but Hermione cut him off and started explaining _exactly_ how DADA was taught. Harry zoned out, but Percy seemed to calm down slightly.

Which was good.

They were just about to enter the classroom when harry saw Phil running up the stairs, his face red and panting, with his tie crooked and his shirt untucked. which was very unlike phil.

But it wasn't unlike Phil to disappear from time to time for short periods of time, or sometimes even hours, so Harry didn't really pay attention to him and made his way into the class.

When he entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom he found Professor Umbridge already seated at the teacher's desk, wearing the fluffy pink cardigan of the night before and the black velvet bow on top of her head. Harry was again reminded forcibly of a large fly perched unwisely on top of an even larger toad. The class was quiet as it entered the room; Professor Umbridge was, as yet, an unknown quantity and nobody knew yet how strict a disciplinarian she was likely to be.

"Well, good afternoon!" she said when finally the whole class had sat down. A few people mumbled "Good afternoon," in reply.

"Tut, tut," said Professor Umbridge. "That won't do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge.' One more time, please. Good afternoon, class!"

"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge," they chanted back at her. Although harry was positive he heard Percy call her something like empousa under his breath, whatever that was.

"There, now," said Professor Umbridge sweetly. "That wasn't too difficult, was it? Wands away and quills out, please."

Many of the class exchanged gloomy looks; the order "wands away" had never yet been followed by a lesson they had found interesting. Harry shoved his wand back inside his bag and pulled out quill, ink, and parchment. Professor Umbridge opened her handbag, extracted her own wand, which was an unusually short one, and tapped the blackboard sharply with it; words appeared on the board at once:

Defense Against the Dark Arts A Return to Basic Principles.

"Well now, your teaching in this subject has been rather disrupted and fragmented, hasn't it?" stated Professor Umbridge, turning to face the class with her hands clasped neatly in front of her. "The constant changing of teachers, many of whom do not seem to have followed any Ministry-approved curriculum, has unfortunately resulted in your being far below the standard we would expect to see in your O.W.L. year.

"You will be pleased to know, however, that these problems are now to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured, theory centered, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year. Copy down the following, please." She rapped the blackboard again; the first message vanished and was replaced by:

 _Course aims: 1. Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic. 2. Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used. 3. Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use._

For a couple of minutes, the room was full of the sound of scratching quills on parchment, with harry often having to help Percy write some of the things down, while Percy was continuously cursing the 'pink toad that looks like Aphrodite cursed her.'

When everyone had copied down Professor Umbridge's three course aims she said, "Has everybody got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?" There was a dull murmur of assent throughout the class. "I think we'll try that again," said Professor Umbridge. "When I ask you a question, I should like you to reply 'Yes, Professor Umbridge,' or 'No, Professor Umbridge.' So, has everyone got a copy of Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard?"

"Yes, Professor Umbridge," rang through the room, with Percy once again muttering something about evil teachers.

"Good," said Professor Umbridge. "I should like you to turn to page five and read chapter one, 'Basics for Beginners.' There will be no need to talk." Professor Umbridge left the blackboard and settled herself in the chair behind the teacher's desk, observing them all with those pouchy toad's eyes. Harry turned to Percy and asked him if he needed help reading anything, but Percy just shook his head and said that he wasn't going to do the thing the pink toad asked him to do. So, harry turned to page five of his copy of Defensive Magical Theory and started to read. It was desperately dull, quite as bad as listening to Professor Binns. He felt his concentration sliding away from him; he had soon read the same line half a dozen times without taking in more than the first few words. Percy shaking his leg next to him wasn't helping at all.

Several silent minutes passed. Harry looked right and received a surprise to shake him out of his torpor. Hermione had not even opened her copy of Defensive Magical Theory. She was staring fixedly at Professor Umbridge with her hand in the air. Harry could not remember Hermione ever neglecting to read when instructed to, or indeed resisting the temptation to open any book that came under her nose. He looked at her questioningly, but she merely shook her head slightly to indicate that she was not about to answer questions, and continued to stare at Professor Umbridge, who was looking just as resolutely in another direction. After several more minutes had passed, however, Harry was not the only one watching Hermione. The chapter they had been instructed to read was so dull that more and more people were choosing to watch Hermione's mute attempt to catch Professor Umbridge's eye than to struggle on with "Basics for Beginners", including Percy. When more than half the class were staring at Hermione rather than at their books, Professor Umbridge seemed to decide that she could ignore the situation no longer. "Did you want to ask something about the chapter, dear?" she asked Hermione, as though she had only just noticed her.

"Not about the chapter, no," said Hermione. "Well, we're reading just now," said Professor Umbridge, showing her small, pointed teeth.

"If you have other queries we can deal with them at the end of class."

"I've got a query about your course aims," said Hermione. Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows. "And your name is —?"

"Hermione Granger," said Hermione.

"queen," Percy whispered dramatically, which made a few of the people around him snicker and nod their heads, harry included. Luckily, Umbridge didn't hear.

"Well, Miss Granger, I think the course aims are perfectly clear if you read them through carefully," said Professor Umbridge in a voice of determined sweetness.

"Well, I don't," said Hermione bluntly. "There's nothing written up there about using defensive spells."

There was a short silence in which many members of the class turned their heads to frown at the three course aims still written on the blackboard.

"Using defensive spells?" Professor Umbridge repeated with a little laugh. "Why, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to use a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?"

"We're not going to use magic?" Ron ejaculated loudly. "Students raise their hands when they wish to speak in my class, Mr. —?"

"Weasley," said Ron, thrusting his hand into the air. Professor Umbridge, smiling still more widely, turned her back on him. Harry, Hermione and Percy immediately raised their hands too. Professor Umbridge's pouchy eyes lingered on Harry for a moment before she addressed Hermione. "Yes, Miss Granger? You wanted to ask something else?"

"Yes," said Hermione. "Surely the whole point of Defense Against the Dark Arts is to practice defensive spells?"

"Are you a Ministry-trained educational expert, Miss Granger?" asked Professor Umbridge in her falsely sweet voice.

Percy almost gagged next to him, and so did harry.

"No, but —"

"Well then, I'm afraid you are not qualified to decide what the 'whole point' of any class is. Wizards much older and cleverer than you have devised our new program of study. You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way —"

Harry had had enough.

"What use is that?" said Harry loudly. "If we're going to be attacked it won't be in a —"

"Hand, Mr. Potter!" sang Professor Umbridge. Harry thrust his fist in the air. Professor Umbridge promptly turned away from him again, but now several other people had their hands up too. "And your name is?" Professor Umbridge said to Percy.

"Percy Jackson."

"Well, Mr. Jackson?"

"Well, it's like Harry said, isn't it?" said Percy. "If you're going to be attacked, it won't be risk-free —"

"I repeat," said Professor Umbridge, smiling in a very irritating fashion at Percy, "do you expect to be attacked during my classes?"

"No, but —" Professor Umbridge talked over him.

"I do not wish to criticize the way things have been run in this school," she said, an unconvincing smile stretching her wide mouth, "but you have been exposed to some very irresponsible wizards in this class, very irresponsible indeed — not to mention," she gave a nasty little laugh, "extremely dangerous half-breeds."

"If you mean Professor Lupin," piped up Hermione angrily, "he was the best we ever —"

"Hand, Miss Granger! As I was saying — you have been introduced to spells that have been complex, inappropriate to your age group, and potentially lethal. You have been frightened into believing that you are likely to meet Dark attacks every other day —"

"No we haven't," Hermione said, "we just —"

"Your hand is not up, Miss Granger!" Hermione put up her hand; Professor Umbridge turned away from her.

"It is my understanding that my predecessor not only performed illegal curses in front of you, he actually performed them on you —"

"Well, he turned out to be a maniac, didn't he?" said Dean Thomas hotly.

"Mind you, we still learned loads —"

"Your hand is not up, Mr. Thomas!" trilled Professor Umbridge.

"Now, it is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination, which, after all, is what school is all about. And your name is?" she added, staring at Parvati, whose hand had just shot up.

"Parvati Patil, and isn't there a practical bit in our Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.? Aren't we supposed to show that we can actually do the countercurses and things?"

"As long as you have studied the theory hard enough, there is no reason why you should not be able to perform the spells under carefully controlled examination conditions," said Professor Umbridge dismissively.

"Without ever practicing them before?" said Parvati incredulously. "Are you telling us that the first time we'll get to do the spells will be during our exam?"

"I repeat, as long as you have studied the theory hard enough —"

"And what good's theory going to be in the real world?" said Harry loudly, his fist in the air again.

"finally," Percy muttered next to him.

Professor Umbridge looked up. "This is school, Mr. Potter, not the real world," she said softly.

"So we're not supposed to be prepared for what's waiting out there?"

"There is nothing waiting out there, Mr. Potter."

"Oh yeah?" said Percy. He stood up.

Harry was surprised.

"Who do you imagine wants to attack children like yourselves?" inquired Professor Umbridge in a horribly honeyed voice.

"Hmm, let's think . . ." said Harry in a mock thoughtful voice, piping back into the conversation. "maybe Lord Voldemort?"

Ron gasped; Lavender Brown uttered a little scream; Neville slipped sideways off his stool.

Professor Umbridge, however, did not flinch. She was staring at Harry with a grimly satisfied expression on her face. "Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter." The classroom was silent and still. Everyone was staring at either Umbridge or Harry. "Now, let me make a few things quite plain."

Professor Umbridge stood up and leaned toward them, her stubby fingered hands splayed on her desk. "You have been told that a certain Dark wizard has returned from the dead —"

"He wasn't dead," said Harry angrily, "but yeah, he's returned!"

Percy was looking between harry and Umbridge, confused.

"Mr.-Potter-you-have-already-lost-your-House-ten-points-do-notmake-matters-worse-for-yourself," said Professor Umbridge in one breath without looking at him.

"As I was saying, you have been informed that a certain Dark wizard is at large once again. This is a lie."

"It is NOT a lie!" said Harry. "I saw him, I fought him!" "Detention, Mr. Potter!" said Professor Umbridge triumphantly. "Tomorrow evening. Five o'clock. My office. I repeat, this is a lie. The Ministry of Magic guarantees that you are not in danger from any Dark wizard. If you are still worried, by all means come and see me outside class hours. If someone is alarming you with fibs about reborn Dark wizards, I would like to hear about it. I am here to help. I am your friend. And now, you will kindly continue your reading. Page five, 'Basics for Beginners.'" Professor Umbridge sat down behind her desk again. Harry, however, remained stood up, and so did Percy. Everyone was staring at him; Seamus looked half scared, half-fascinated. "Harry, no!" Hermione whispered in a warning voice, tugging at his sleeve, but Harry jerked his arm out of her reach. "So, according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord, did he?" Harry asked, his voice shaking.

There was a collective intake of breath from the class, for none of them, apart from Ron and Hermione, had ever heard Harry talk about what had happened on the night that Cedric had died. Percy looked especially confused.

They stared avidly from Harry to Professor Umbridge, who had raised her eyes and was staring at him without a trace of a fake smile on her face.

"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident," she said coldly. "It was murder," said Harry. He could feel himself shaking. He had

hardly talked to anyone about this, least of all thirty eagerly listening classmates.

"Voldemort killed him, and you know it." Professor Umbridge's face was quite blank. For a moment he thought she was going to scream at him. Then she said, in her softest, most sweetly girlish voice,

"Come here, Mr. Potter, dear." He kicked his chair aside, strode around Percy and Hermione and up to the teacher's desk. He could feel the rest of the class holding its breath. He felt so angry he did not care what happened next. Professor Umbridge pulled a small roll of pink parchment out of her handbag, stretched it out on the desk, dipped her quill into a bottle of ink, and started scribbling, hunched over so that Harry could not see what she was writing. Nobody spoke. After a minute or so she rolled up the parchment and tapped it with her wand; it sealed itself seamlessly so that he could not open it.

"Take this to Professor McGonagall, dear," said Professor Umbridge, holding out the note to him. He took it from her without saying a word and was about to leave the room, when out of nowhere, Percy started walking towards Umbridge.

He stood right in front of her, which was a funny sight, seeing as she was about two heads shorter than him.

He looked her dead in the eye, and without any trace of humor, said "you are a liar, and your clothing choices would make my aunt faint."

The class was silent for a few seconds, and you could see shock and fury on Umbridge's face.

Meanwhile, harry was confused as hell.

Finally, Umbridge said, in a very sharp tone, "detention for you too, mister Jackson." Percy nodded, and turned back to his seat, while he was on the way, he caught Harrys eye and winked at him.

Harry was even more confused.

He left the room. He walked very fast along the corridor, the note to McGonagall clutched tight in his hand.

Hi!

So, im not dead. Sorry for like completely leaving this story behind ive just been so busy with school and life (not procrastinating at all)

So yeah, im back to updating again. I don't know how often ill be able to upload, but I know that the chapters are going to get longer from now on, so yeah.

Anyway, please tell me what you think or if I made any mistakes or if you have suggestions for the story!

Thanks (:

Bye!


	8. Chapter 8

Percy

After harry left the class with the letter the toad had given him, the class got back to reading the things the toad had told them to. Percy couldn't read anything of course, but he suspected that he wasn't the only one not reading.

Hermione was stubbornly staring straight ahead, tapping her foot. Ron was staring off to the distance, a dreamy look on his face. A few other students at the back of the class were passing notes and to his right he could hear Dan and Malfoy whispering rapidly, and the other students were staring blankly at the book with dead, cold eyes that screamed _'boring!'_

So all in all, no one was reading the shit they were asked to read.

Percy wondered what the punishment would be like. He had said the things he said to get a punishment so he could spend some time with harry and learn more about the things him and the teacher were arguing about, but mostly he just wanted to annoy the pink thing.

The sound of the bell ringing was like music to his ears. He bolted up and ran out of the classroom before half the class even stood up.

Dinner in the great hall that night was not pleasant. Everyone was talking about the fight harry and the toad had. Percy was impressed by the speed of gossip in Hogwarts.

He was sat between Phil and Ron, minding his own business, eating his lovely apple pie, but he couldn't help but overhear some whispered conversations around him.

 _'He says he saw Cedric Diggory murdered ...'  
'He reckons he dueled with You-Know-Who ...'  
'Come off it ...'  
'Who does he think he's kidding?'  
'Pur-lease ...'_

He was sick of it. _  
_"What I don't get," said Harry through clenched teeth, laying down his knife and fork (percy noticed that his hands were shaking too much to hold them steady), "is why they all believed the story two months ago when Dumbledore told them ..."

Yet again, percy was confused. What story?

"The thing is, Harry, I'm not sure they did," said Hermione grimly. "Oh, let's get out of here."

She slammed down her own knife and fork; Ron looked longingly at his half-finished apple pie but followed suit. People stared at them as they walked out of the Hall. Percy stared until he couldn't see them anymore, then snapped his attention to across the hall, where he spotted the familiar mob of dark hair. He waited until Nico looked up and they made eye contact. Percy tried to sorta swish his head to the side to send a signal, but he probably looked like he had a neck spasm or something.

Nico looked at him weirdly.

He tried again a few times, Nico getting more confused after every failed attempt.

Finally, he just sighed and gave up on his dreams of ever being a super spy, seeing as his secret communication skills were as good as Dolores Umbridge's clothing choices.

He got up and left the hall, hoping Nico would take the hint and follow.

He walked over to the nearest stairway and waited. He was soon joined by an unimpressed Nico.

"the hell was that all about? Is your neck ok? Cause that there were some serious neck moves, man. You should massage your neck." He snickered.

"shut up, I was trying to send a signal. Anyway, do you know what everyone's talking about? The thing with harry and this cedric diggory guy? Is it something we should report?" Percy only added the last part to seem more professional and not already knee deep in Hogwarts drama.

"kinda. So you know who this voldy guy is, right?"

"the dark wizard? The one that people still call you know who even though he died like 15 years ago?"

"yeah. So last year there was this big tournament or something with contestants from a few other schools, and Hogwarts' champions were cedric and harry, even though he was underage. So they both made it to the last event, which was in a maze or something so no one was there, but harry claims that voldyshorts came back from the dead, killed cedric and dueled him."

"shit."

"yeah. But almost no one believes harry besides Dumbledore and a few other people, and your friendly local minister of magic is making Dumbledore seem like a total whackjob, so everyone's avoiding them." Nico said, clearly uninterested.

Percy was about to ask if Nico believed harry, but he was interrupted by a cough.

He turned around and looked down at something round and pink with a bow on top of its head.

"mister Jackson. I wanted to inform you that your detention with Mr. potter is tomorrow evening, in my office. Do not be late, or there will be consequences." She smiled sweetly, then strode past them into the hall.

Nico looked at him for a moment, then shook his head.

"I don't even want to know why." He turned around and went back to the great hall.

Percy went up the stairs, looking for the Gryffindor common room. With the help of many portraits, he finally found the common room.

"crap." He muttered to himself. He had forgotten the password to the room.

"what was that, dear?" the fat lady in the portrait asked sweetly.

"there's no way you're going to let me in without the password, is there?"

"nope. Sorry to crush your dreams. Good news though, you get to watch me practice my singing!" the fat lady exclaimed excitedly.

Percy groaned and sat there with his back to the wall, clutching his ears when the lady started singing. It sounded more like a goose was being run over by a truck, while being electrocuted at the same time.

Finally, after ten minutes of the lovely singing, he saw Phil coming up the stairs. He took a moment to take in the sight of him.

His hair was messy, his tie was untied, and his shirt was creased and the few top buttons were unbuttoned.

Phil broke into a giant smile when he saw him sitting there, clutching his ears.

"hey mate, how you doin'?"

" . .think." Percy muttered slowly.

Phil chuckled and turned to the portrait.

"Mimbulus mimbletonia"

The portrait swung open.

Percy had never been this relieved in his life.

 **Hi.**

 **So, for those of you who actually read this thing, sorry for updating late, but I'm back to writing again, as I have nothing else to do this summer besides writing and martial arts :D**

 **Please, please, please comment! Even if you hate it, just tell me. The comments were the only thing that made me want to write this again and they mean so much to me like honestly I screenshot each comment and keep them forever and ever and I don't care if that sounds really creepy. Comment.**

 **So, that's it for now, bye!**


	9. Chapter 9

Harry

Percy and Phil came into the common room a while later, Phil looking like he had run through the forbidden forest and Percy looking like he was sick of being alive.

"what happened to you two?" Ron asked, looking them up and down.

Phil suddenly looked nervous, but Percy rescued him from answering.

"you can use the voice of the lady on the portrait for torture. If she ever gets tired of her job, tell her to hit me up. I know a guy. Now If you'll excuse me, I need to go sit in a silent room for a month and think of my life decisions." Percy said slowly. He left for the dormitories after that.

"she's not _that_ bad, is she?" Phil asked, looking at Percy's retreating form.

Harry and Ron both looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"oh fine. But it's not nice to make fun of her, though." Phil admitted. He, too, left after that.

Harry turned to Ron.

"so, homework or sleep?"

"sleep." Ron nodded.

Nico

Nico missed Will.

Ever since Will had moved back with his mom to go to some mortal medical school, Nico had been seeing him less and less, and it bugged the hell out of him. They IM'd occasionally, but they couldn't do it much because of the time differences and Wills busy schedule.

"You ok?"

Nico looked up to see Malfoy walking over to him, a package in his hands.

"yeah, just thinking. What's that?" he nodded towards the package, changing the subject.

"candy. Want some?" Malfoy replied, sitting next to him in the common room. Nico shrugged.

Malfoy grinned devilishly and opened the package. He took out what looked like a bag full of jellybeans and held it out to Nico. Nico eyed the jellybeans suspiciously. He didn't think Malfoy would try to poison him, although he did have a douche side to him when he was around potter or other people. The jellybeans looked semi normal, if you didn't count the weird color and patterns on some of the beans. So Nico thought ' _fuck it_ ,' and took a red jellybean and put it in his mouth. He noticed Malfoy looking at him intensely.

"what the fuck?!" he exclaimed loudly as he felt his mouth burn up. It was a freakin' red chili bean. Malfoy was almost crying with laughter, clutching his stomach.

"you fuckin asshole! _What are those?_ Someone get me milk! I need milk, you douchenozzle," Nico was running out of the common room, looking for the kitchens. He, of course, body slammed someone just as he was about to make a turn.

"ow, what the hell, mate?" the guy had fallen down, but Nico had managed to keep his balance. (thanks for the practice, Jason.)

He held out his hand to the form on the floor, which he now identified as Dan and helped him up.

"sorry, do you know where the kitchens are? And do you, by any chance, have milk?" his mouth was still burning, so it was kind of hard to understand what he was saying.

Dan looked at him weirdly.

"the kitchens are behind a painting of fruits in the hallway leading to the basements. I could take you there if you want." Dan offered.

Nico nodded, then started running in the direction he thought was to the basements, Dan following him a few paces behind all the while warning him to be quiet.

Once they reached the big portrait, Dan started tickling the pear.

What.

The pear started laughing, then turned into a green door-knob. Nico momentarily forgot about his burning mouth and stared at the door-knob in awe.

Dan opened the portrait door and went inside. Nico followed suit, and couldn't believe his eyes.

It was an enormous, high-ceilinged room, as large as the Great Hall, with mounds of glittering brass pots and pans heaped around the stone walls, and a great brick fireplace at the other end, and hundreds of little creatures running around. As soon as they stepped in, everyone stopped whatever they were doing and looked at them for a second, then went back to work. One of the ugly but strangely adorable creatures ran up to them. The creature was wearing a tea cozy for a hat, on which he had pinned a number of bright badges; a tie patterned with horseshoes over a bare chest, a pair of what looked like children's soccer shorts, and odd socks. It was a very disturbing sight.

"master Howell, sir! Such a pleasant surprise to see you down here again, sir. Dobby is very happy to be able to serve the good master Howell." The little creature squeaked. Nico was staring again. What the hell were these creatures?

"nice to see you too, dobby. Could you get Nico here a glass of milk please?"

Dobby nodded furiously and ran off.

Nico looked at Dan, waiting for an explanation.

Dan looked back at him blankly.

"what are those _creatures_?" Nico asked slowly.

Dan looked surprised. ' _maybe the creatures were something common in the wizarding world?'_ Nico thought.

Just as he was about to answer, the creature –dobby- ran up to them again and handed Nico a glass of milk, then asked them to call him if they needed anything else and ran off again.

Nico started gulping down the milk, enjoying the soothing taste, the creatures and the wizarding world long forgotten.

"they're house elves. How can you not know what house elves are?" Dan said incredulously.

"don't have them in America," Nico answered. "did you know the one that was just here? Or do elves naturally know everyone's names?" Nico was joking, of course, but honestly, he wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be true.

"he used to work for the Malfoys a few years ago, and I saw him in the summers when I visited Draco. The Malfoys treated him very badly, so potter set him free by giving him a sock." Dan shrugged, as if it was completely normal to free an elf by giving it a sock.

' _sure,'_ Nico thought. ' _why not.'_

Just then, a thought occurred to him.

"what were you doing out, anyway? When I ran into you in the hallways?"

Dan seemed uncomfortable.

"oh. Um, you know, wandering around aimlessly, talking to the portraits, avoiding the racist snakes, the usual. You done with the milk?" he asked hurriedly.

Nico nodded and started walking towards the portrait, Dan walking besides him.

"if you don't like the racist snakes, why are you friends with Malfoy?" Nico asked, quite bluntly. He was still salty about the bean. He was sure he had lost his taste buds and wouldn't be able to taste anything for a week. Awesome.

"Draco's different. It's all a show, he's not really like what he makes himself out to be. His dad pressures him into doing things. I really hate that old bastard.." Dan muttered darkly. Nico pondered the information for a while. He could understand that.

Soon, they reached the Slytherin common room. There was no sight of Malfoy, so Nico went to his dormitory and passed out the second his head hit the pillow, dreaming of home and a certain son of Apollo.

Percy

Percy HAD to iris message Annabeth. He missed her like crazy, and couldn't stand not talking to her. He knew Nico must miss Will too, so he found the son of hades after the fourth period and asked him to stand outside the bathroom on the second floor and cover for him while he created a rainbow inside the bathroom.

He manipulated the water to form a misty wall in front of one of the windows, creating a faint rainbow. He dug around in his pockets, but couldn't find a drachma.

Dammit.

"Nico!" he called out. He heard a faint ' _what?'_ coming from outside.

"come here and give me a drachma," Percy called out again. A few moments later, he was joined by Nico, who tossed him a drachma as he came in.

"I'm not going out again, it looks way more suspicious with me just standing outside doing nothing." He grumbled and leaned against one of the walls.

Percy tossed the drachma into the rainbow and said: "O, Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering. Show me Annabeth chase, camp half-blood."

The rainbow shimmered a bit, then showed Annabeth, talking animatedly with Leo, looking very excited. Percy smiled and called out to them.

Annabeth turned around. Her eyes widened and she started to smile hugely. Leo waved while grinning.

"Percy! How are you? How's Nico? Are you guys ok? Oh gods vie missed you so much, tell me everything!" Annabeth gushed.

"okay, okay! Calm down. I'm good, Nico's good. I've missed you too, everything's good.." they spent the next five minutes catching up, until the iris message came close to an end. With a promise of calling again soon, he ended the iris message.

"ok loverboy, my turn." Nico said happily as he came over and tossed another drachma into the rainbow. Percy was happy to see his cousin happy.

"O, Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering. Show me Will Solace, wherever he is."

The rainbow shimmered again, this time showing a sleepy Will solace, making cereal in his pajamas.

"hey," Nico called out softly. Will spun around hastily, almost dropping the bowl he was holding.

"Nico!" Will shouted happily, putting the bowl on the counter and coming to stand in front of the IM.

They talked softly, and Percy tried not to listen much, but he caught snippets of conversation here and there. They ended the IM by saying 'I love you's to another.

They didn't talk much on their way back to the great hall, both thinking of the ones they missed.

They were a bit late to lunch, but it didn't seem like a big deal so they both shrugged it off and went to their own tables. Percy plopped down next to Hermione and in front of harry.

"hey," he said gloomily. He hadn't realized how much he had missed his friends back home.

"what's up with you?" Hermione asked kindly. "are you ok? You seem kind of upset."

"I'm fine, I just miss my friends back home. I never realized how attached I've become to my friends." Percy said miserably. He was getting sadder and sadder with each moment he spent thinking of the seven or Thalia or Reyna or anyone from camp.

"oh. Well, you can always write to them, right? And you can visit them on holidays," she said softly.

"and you have us here." Harry added.

Percy nodded, grateful for the last comment. He thought _'stop being a sad lump and do something useful. Like eating.'_

He was halfway through his meal when he remembered something and his eyes widened.

"shit!" he exclaimed, getting the attention of the people around him. Most of them glared at him, not used to the swearing.

"we have detention with the tropical toad this evening," he told harry.

Harry groaned.

"this is going to be fun."

 **Heyo.**

 **Please comment? Tell me what you think? Anything? The comments keep me going, honestly. They're like fuel. Also, if you have any questions or suggestions or if you just want to talk (about anything) just tell me (:**


	10. Chapter 10

Harry

As Harry was starving, and he had his first detention with Umbridge at five o'clock, he headed straight for dinner with Percy without dropping off his bag in Gryffindor Tower so that they could bolt something down before facing whatever she had in store for them. they had barely reached the entrance of the Great Hall, however, when a loud and angry voice yelled, "Hey, Potter!"

"What now?" he muttered wearily, turning to face Angelina Johnson, who looked as though she was in a towering temper. Percy looked at him with raised eyebrows, also stopping in his tracks.

"I'll tell you what now," she said, marching straight up to him and poking him hard in the chest with her finger. "How come you've landed yourself in detention for five o'clock on Friday?"

"What?" said Harry. Then it dawned on him. "Why ... oh yeah, Keeper tryouts!"

"Now he remembers!' snarled Angelina. "Didn't I tell you I wanted to do a tryout with the whole team, and find someone who fitted in with everyone? Didn't I tell you I'd booked the Quidditch pitch specially? And now you've decided you're not going to be there!"

Harry noticed that Percy was watching the whole exchange with utmost interest and amusement, as if this was something he had to deal with a lot.

"I didn't decide not to be there!" said Harry, stung by the injustice of those words. "I got detention from that Umbridge woman, just because I told her the truth about You-Know-Who."

"Well, you can just go straight to her and ask her to let you off on Friday," said Angelina fiercely, "and I don't care how you do it. Tell her You-Know-Who's a figment of your imagination if you like, just make sure you're there!"

She turned on her heel and stormed away.

"You know what.?" Harry said to Percy as they entered the Great Hall. "I think we'd better check with Puddlemere United whether Oliver Wood's been killed during a training session, because Angelina seems to be channeling his spirit."  
"who's Oliver wood?" Percy asked, tilting his head to the side and looking like a lost puppy.

"the old Quidditch captain."

"what's Quidditch?"

Harry stopped in his tracks and turned to look at him incredulously.

"how can you not know what Quidditch is?!"

He saw a flicker of panic in Percy's eyes, but it was gone as soon as it came so harry didn't pay much attention to it.

"we don't have it in America." Percy said defensively.

Harry just sighed and shook his head. No Quidditch? That must be a boring life.

"What do you reckon are the odds of Umbridge letting you off on Friday?" Percy asked skeptically, as they sat down at the Gryffindor table.

"Less than zero," said Harry glumly, tipping lamb chops on to his plate and starting to eat. "Better try, though, hadn't I? I'll offer to do two more detentions or something, I dunno ..." He swallowed a mouthful of potato and added, "I hope she doesn't keep us too long this evening. You realize we've got to write three essays, practice Vanishing Spells for McGonagall, work out a counter-charm for Flitwick, finish the Bowtruckle drawing and start that stupid dream diary for Trelawney?"

Percy moaned and for some reason glanced up at the ceiling.

"And it looks like it's going to rain."

"What's that got to do with our homework?" said harry, his eyebrows raised.

"nothing," said Percy at once, quickly stuffing his mouth with pudding.

At five to five Harry and Percy set off for Umbridge's office on the third floor. When he knocked on the door she called, 'Come in,' in a sugary voice. They entered cautiously, looking around.

Harry had been in this office several times.

When Lockhart was occupying the office, it was filled with disturbing portraits of himself, drawing himself.

When Lupin was here, the office was filled with interesting creatures, and when moody was occupying the office it was packed with various instruments and artefacts for the detection of wrongdoing and concealment.

Now, however, it looked totally unrecognizable and disturbing. The surfaces had all been draped in lacy covers and cloths. There were several vases full of dried and dead flowers, each one residing on its own doily, and on one of the walls was a collection of ornamental plates, each decorated with a large technicolor kitten wearing a different bow around its neck. These were so foul that Harry stared at them, transfixed, until Professor Umbridge spoke again.

"good evening,"

Harry winced and looked around. He had not noticed her at first because she was wearing a luridly flowered set of robes that blended only too well with the tablecloth on the desk behind her. She looked horrific.

'Evening, Professor Umbridge,' Harry and Percy said stiffly.

'Well, sit down,' she said, pointing towards two small tables draped in lace beside which she had drawn up straight-backed chairs. A piece of blank parchment lay on the tables, apparently waiting for them.

Percy started moving towards the chairs, seemingly at ease. Harry wondered if he had been a troublemaker at his old school. He certainly looked like one, harry had to admit.

"Er," said Harry, without moving. "Professor Umbridge. Er-before we start, I-I wanted to ask you a ... a favor."

Her bulging eyes narrowed. She now looked like a squinting toad.

"Oh, yes?"

"Well, I'm…I'm in the Gryffindor Quidditch team. And I was supposed to be at the tryouts for the new Keeper at five o'clock on Friday and I was-was wondering whether I could skip detention that night and do it-do it another night ... instead ..."

He knew long before he reached the end of his sentence that it was no good.

"Oh, no," said Umbridge, smiling so widely that she looked as though she had just swallowed a particularly juicy fly. "Oh, no, no, no. This is your punishment for spreading evil, nasty, attention-seeking stories, Mr. Potter, and punishments certainly cannot be adjusted to suit the guilty one's convenience. No, you will come here at five o'clock tomorrow, and the next day, and on Friday too, and you will do your detentions as planned. I think it rather a good thing that you are missing something you really want to do. It ought to reinforce the lesson I am trying to teach you."

Harry felt the blood surge to his head and heard a thumping noise in his ears. So he told 'evil, nasty, attention-seeking stones', did he?

Harry glanced at Percy, who was glaring at the toad, then back to her.

She was watching him with her head slightly to one side, still smiling widely, as though she knew exactly what he was thinking and was waiting to see whether he would start shouting again. With a massive effort, Harry looked away from her, walked over to the table beside percy, dropped his schoolbag beside the straight-backed chair and sat down.

"There," said Umbridge sweetly, "we're getting better at controlling our temper already, aren't we? Now, you two are going to be doing some lines for me. No, not with your quill," she added, as they bent down to open their bags. "You're going to be using a rather special one of mine. Here you are."

She handed them long, thin black quills with an unusually sharp point.

"I want you to write, I must not tell lies, Mr. potter." she told him softly. "and as for you, Mr. Jackson, I want you to write, I must not be rude."

Percy scoffed quietly.

"How many times?" Harry asked, with a creditable imitation of politeness.

"Oh, as long as it takes for the message to sink in," said Umbridge sweetly. "Off you go."

Percy

She moved over to her desk, sat down and bent over a stack of parchment that looked like essays for marking. Percy raised the sharp black quill, (seriously? Quills? What the hell, man?) then realized what was missing.

"You haven't given us any ink," he said.

"Oh, you won't need ink," said Professor Umbridge, with the merest suggestion of a laugh in her voice. he barely stopped himself from gagging.

Percy placed the point of the quill on the paper and wrote: I must not be rude.

He let out a gasp of pain. The words had appeared on the parchment in what appeared to be shining red ink. At the same time, the words had appeared on the back of Percy's right hand, cut into his skin as though traced there by a scalpel - yet even as he stared at the shining cut, the skin healed over again, leaving the place where it had been slightly redder than before but quite smooth.

What the fuck.

He had known something was wrong with the quill the second she had handed it to him, but he had passed it off as it being magical or some shit. He looked over at harry, and saw that he was staring at his hand in pain and disbelief, the words 'I must not tell lies' carved into it

Percy looked round at Umbridge. She was watching them, her wide, toadlike mouth stretched in a smile. Percy wanted to kick her. Badly.

"Yes?"

"Nothing," said Harry quietly, kicking his shin as if to warn him to be quiet.

Percy bit his tongue and looked back at the parchment, placed the quill on it once more, wrote I must not be rude, and felt the searing pain on the back of his hand for a second time; once again, the words had been cut into his skin; once again, they healed over seconds later.

And on it went. Again and again Percy wrote the words on the parchment in what he soon came to realize was not ink, but his own blood. And, again and again, the words were cut into the back of his hand, healed, and reappeared the next time he set quill to parchment.

His hatred for the pink bitch increased each time he felt the intense pain at the back of his hand, and he realized with a horrible sense of nausea, that he wouldn't mind her getting eaten by a hellhound. he had to talk about all this with nico.

Harry

Darkness fell outside Umbridge's window. Harry did not ask when he would be allowed to stop. He did not even check his watch. He knew she was watching them for signs of weakness and he was not going to show any, not even if he had to sit there all night, cutting open his own hand with this quill…

'Come here,' she said, after what seemed hours.

they stood up. His hand was stinging painfully. When he looked down at it he saw that the cut had healed, but that the skin there was red raw.

Percy went first

'Hand,' she said.

He extended it. She took it in her own. Harry repressed a shudder as she touched Percy's wound with her thick, stubby fingers on which she wore a number of ugly old rings.

She nodded, seemingly pleased, then motioned for harry to come up and for Percy to leave.

She took his hand and poked it with her ugly, ugly fingers. Harry tried very hard not to flinch.

"Tut, tut, I don't seem to have made much of an impression yet," she said, smiling. "Well, we'll just have to try again tomorrow evening, won't we? You may go."

Harry left her office without a word. Percy was leaning against the wall of the office, waiting for him.

The school was quite deserted; it was surely past midnight.

"you okay?" Percy asked, seeming actually concerned. Harry was a bit surprised by the concern.

"I'm okay, you?"

"yeah, I've had worse. Are all punishments in Hogwarts like this? Cause damn, man. I might actually consider staying out of trouble." Percy said slowly, as if thinking of all the punishments he might have to go through.

"no. I've never seen or heard of a punishment that involves hurting a student." Harry said, still dumbfounded by the punishment. "she's taken it too far."

They started walking back, not talking much. After a while, Percy broke the silence.

"you gonna tell anyone? About your hand?"

Harry pondered this. He surely wouldn't tell Dumbledore, with all the stuff going on around him. He doubted he would talk about this to Ron or Hermione, as he was sure they would go straight to Dumbledore.

"no," he answered truthfully. "you?"

Percy nodded. "I have to tell Nico. If I don't, he'll find out anyway. He's weird that way." Percy sounded quite fond. Harry didn't know if Percy and Nico were close or not. Harry was quite reluctant of Nico. He was a Slytherin, after all. The only time he had seen them together was at the train ride and a few times around school, so he just asked.

"are you two close?"

Percy seemed surprised with the question, as if the answer to that was obvious.

"yep, really close." Percy nodded. "he's my cousin." This time, it was Harry's turn to be surprised. He turned around to fully look at Percy.

"I didn't know that," harry admitted.

"yeah. I actually have a lot of cousins, most of them really close friends. We have a fucked up family, so we have to stick together. I miss them like crazy," Percy said longingly.

Harry nodded in empathy. The rest of the walk was silent, and soon, they reached the common room. Harry went straight to the dormitories while Percy went to take a shower, claiming he had to 'get rid of the pink-toad-aura I got from sitting in that godawful grandma office for all those hours'

 **Hola**

 **So, it's getting pretty boring, me begging you guys to comment at the end of every chapter, isn't it?**

 **So I'm just gonna go ahead and say it again: please please comment? Seriously they mean a lot**

 **Anyway if you want to talk about anything or have questions or suggestions, feel free to tell me :D**


	11. Chapter 11

Harry

The second detention was just as bad as the previous one, only made worse by the lack of Percy. The skin on the back of Harry's hand became irritated more quickly now and was soon red and inflamed. Harry thought it unlikely that it would keep healing as effectively for long. Soon the cut would remain etched into his hand and Umbridge would, perhaps, be satisfied. He let no gasp of pain escape him, however, and from the moment of entering the room to the moment of his dismissal, again past midnight, he said nothing but 'good evening' and 'goodnight'. Out loud, anyway. What he said inside his head to the toad was a whole other thing.

Harry was currently sitting in the great hall, trying to do some homework. It was early, around 6 am, so the hall was almost deserted. That's why he almost dropped his quill on his essay when he heard loud laughter coming from the entrance of the hall.

He looked over and saw Di Angelo and some other Slytherin bloke –blaise?- entering the hall, going straight to the Slytherin table. Nico nodded his head in acknowledgement when he saw him, but quickly turned back to his conversation with the other snake.

Harry didn't know how to feel about Nico. He was, after all, Percy's cousin, and harry was beginning to grow quite fond of Percy lately. But on the other hand, he was a Slytherin, and he seemed friendly with Malfoy and his gang; so that made harry automatically dislike the boy.

He sighed and stole another glance at the duo. They seemed to be having a serious conversation, despite the laughter only minutes ago.

Harry was curious. He hadn't slept well last night, staying up to catch up on some homework, and right now, to him, _anything_ was more interesting than whatever-the-fuck he was writing an essay about.

He couldn't hear anything though. Despite the hall being almost empty and sound echoing off the walls, they were talking quietly, and he only heard parts of the conversation, which didn't really make sense.

Just then, the impossible happened.

Percy Jackson, in all his handsome glory, walked in. at 6 am. On a Sunday morning.

Harry, remembering all those times he and the boys had to literally push Percy out of bed so he would wake up, gaped at him.

Percy's face brightened when he spotted Nico, and it became even more happy when he saw harry.

"hey, Nico! Come here," he called out as he made his way towards the Gryffindor table, where harry was sitting.

He sat in front of harry, and the other two soon joined him, each sitting on either side of Percy.

Nobody spoke for a full minute. Harry spent this time examining the three sitting in front of him.

Now that he paid attention, he could see the similarities between Percy and Nico. They both had the unruly dark hair, the same strong, handsome face structure, even their bodies looked alike, if that even made sense. Only, Nico had that wild glint of a madman that Percy didn't have. Harry wondered if Nico could be as good as Percy, personality wise.

The other Slytherin had dark skin and hair, with hazel eyes. he seemed well built, although he was shorter than nico, and even harry, who himself was shorter than nico, who was a fourth year.

Harry noted to himself that he should drink more milk.

The awkward silence was broken by the not-Nico-Slytherin-guy.

"well, this is awkward. I'll go see if Astoria is up. Bye!" he said as he quickly slid off the bench and ran out of the hall. It was the three of them now.

"who was that?" Percy asked Nico, breaking the silence that had fell upon them for a second time.

"blaise. He's my roommate." Nico said shortly.

Silence. Once again.

Harry felt very out of place.

"so, do any of you have any siblings?" harry asked, trying desperately to break the silence.

"no." they both answered quickly.

"lots of cousins though. Lots and lots of cousins." Nico elaborated.

"yeah, Percy told me that when we were walking back from detention the other day."

"he did? How was detention, by the way? We didn't get around to talking yesterday." Nico asked, turning to look at Percy.

Harry was surprised. He thought Percy had told Nico about the quill of doom.

Percy caught a flash of guilt in Percy's eyes, but it was gone so fast and was masked by a grin that harry thought he must have imagined it.

But he didn't seem to have imagined it, because Nico seemed to have caught it too.

"Percy, you're not telling me something, I saw the look. I know that look. It's _the look_. You only get _the look_ when you're hiding something from me when you think its gonna make me mad, it's the same look you had when you told me she was dead, and the same one you got when you and Jason accidentally ate my grapes on the ar- boat. So spit it out, what are you not telling me?"

Harry was stunned. It was the most he had ever heard Nico talk, and this speech contained more information about the two than what he had learned in the past week.

First, Nico had to know Percy pretty well to recognize _the look_ in such a short time. Second, someone had died, and Percy had to tell Nico; and third, Nico liked grapes and he was mad when Percy and this Jason guy ate his grapes on a boat. But he wasn't about to say boat, was he? But thinking of grapes made harry hungry, and he lost his track of thought, instead thinking of grapes. Oh how he loved grapes.

He snapped back to reality just in time to see Percy sighing and showing Nico his hand.

" _Di Immortales!_ What the fuck, man? Why didn't you tell me? Oh, I'm so going to make sure she suffers, this shit is illegal," harry was taken aback by the amount of anger Nico showed. He didn't seem like the show-emotion kinda guy. Nico's head snapped up and he met Harrys eyes.

"Did the Mitéra do this to you too?" harry didn't understand what Nico just called her, but he nodded his head silently.

Nico's face drained of any emotion, turning into a perfect poker face in just a millisecond.

"I need to calm down. I'm going to call will. Harry, please, next time you see her, gently tell her Gamísou. Got it? Ga-mí-sou. It's simple. Now, if you'll excuse me.." he muttered as he walked out of the wall.

Harry turned back to Percy.

"who's will? And what language was that?"

"it was Greek, and before you ask, yes, I know how to speak Greek and no, I won't tell you what that means. And if you're wondering how we learned Greek, a dead language, we learned it from our dads, who are Greek." Percy said all of this monotonously, as if he had said it many times before. Harry noticed that Percy hadn't answered his first question, but Percy started speaking again.

"that was so out of character for Nico," he frowned. "I wonder.." he muttered as he got up and left the hall, saying a quick 'bye!' over his shoulder.

Harry sighed and went back to his essay, which he had completely forgotten about. He was confused, which didn't help with the essay at all. He didn't even know what the fuckin' subject was.

 **Hi!**

 **So, todays chapter was a bit rushed, sorry bout that. Ill probably update again today to make up for it.**

 **Comment. Please. I beg you. They give me life. They make me write more.**


	12. Chapter 12

Nico

Nico didn't like water.

Not just because god of the seas, his dear lovely uncle, hated his existence, no. that was no big deal.

He didn't like it because it was wet and got everywhere and messed everything up and it was really hard to control.

These were Nico's thoughts as he was trying (and failing miserably) to balance a shower head _just_ in the right position so that he could create a rainbow with the light coming from the small window of the bathroom.

Finally, _finally,_ he managed to get it in just the right position. Nico was happy, to say the least.

He threw a drachma into the faint rainbow and said: "O, Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, accept my offering. Show me Will Solace, somewhere in California."

The rainbow shimmered a bit and showed a half-naked Will Solace, sleeping with a bunch of books around him.

Nico smiled at the sight. Will looked adorable.

"Will!" Nico called out. He didn't even stir.

Nico tried calling out his name several times, but to no avail. he was afraid of shouting his name in case of waking his mother.

He sighed and thought _'fuck it',_ a thought he was having pretty frequently lately.

"RISE AND SHINE, YOU LIL SHIT!" He yelled out, causing Will to yelp and fall out of the bed and onto some books that were on the floor.

Nico laughed while will looked around, confused, until he spotted Nico. His eyes widened at the sight.

"Nico! Oh my gods I've missed you so bad, I was actually thinking of IM'ing you but I fell asleep and I wasn't sure if I _could,_ seeing as you're on a quest and it might not be the right time and gods I've missed you so much," Will said all of this in one breath, which was really impressive.

"I've missed you too, Will." Nico smiled hugely. "and you can IM me anytime you want," Nico _knew_ this was a bad idea, and that it might blow the quest, but he was in a particularly strong _'fuck it'_ mood.

The smile Will gave him was worth it though.

"so, what's with all the studying?" Nico asked, pointing at the pile of books. Will groaned.

"being so young in a medical school has its ups and downs. Ups being better than everyone in the practical part while being 5 years younger and endless bragging rights, thanks dad, and downs would be sucking in the theory part and having to actually study." He looked at the books with actual hatred.

Nico hummed sympathetically.

"but forget about medical theory, tell me about wizards! you're in a magic school, for fucks sake!" Will exclaimed. Nico laughed and started telling will all about Hogwarts and magic. He had to throw in two more drachmas for the iris message not to end.

Will was looking at Nico with a twinkle in his eye all the while he was talking.

After Nico was finished there was a brief silence, both looking at the other fondly.

"I love you so much," will murmured, breaking the silence.

Nico blushed and felt the skeleton butterflies in his tummy.

"I love you too," he said back. "so damn much."

Harry

The rest of the week after the morning with Percy and Nico was uneventful.

Friday dawned sullen and sodden as the rest of the week. Harry was having such fun thoughts as he entered the great hall, such as the mountainous pile of homework he had to do and the prospect of yet another detention with Umbridge.

Two things sustained Harry that day. One was the thought that it was almost the weekend; the other was that, dreadful though his final detention with Umbridge was sure to be, he had a distant view of the Quidditch pitch from her window and might, with luck, be able to see something of Ron's tryout for the Quidditch team, which he had told harry about a few days ago. Bad news was that he had also seen Harrys hand, and harry had to explain everything about Umbridge to Ron. he had never had a worse first week of term at Hogwarts.

He was sitting across Phil and Percy in the Gryffindor table (of course), and he was quite surprised when Dan –Malfoys friend- came to their table and whispered something to Phil and left. Harry was just about to ask what the snake had said, but he was distracted by Percy yelping and spitting out his drink.

"what the fuck!" he yelled out, gaining the attention of quite a few people, most of them frowning at him. Harry himself was not so used to the swearing.

Percy took one look at his drink and muttered: "the Stolls would be proud," then he yelled out to the other end of the table, where the Weasley twins were sat and were trying to stifle their laughter. "it's on!"

At five o'clock that evening he knocked on Professor Umbridge's office door for what he sincerely hoped would be the final time, and was told to enter. The blank parchment lay ready for him on the lace-covered table, the pointed black quill beside it.

"You know what to do, Mr. Potter," said Umbridge, smiling sweetly at him.

 _'_ _what I know is that I want to punch you really hard, you tropical toad.'_ Harry thought bitterly.

Harry picked up the quill and glanced through the window. If he just shifted his chair an inch or so to the right ... with the excuse of shifting himself closer to the table, he managed it. He now had a distant view of the Gryffindor Quidditch team soaring up and down the pitch, while half a dozen black figures stood at the foot of the three high goalposts, apparently awaiting their turn to Keep. It was impossible to tell which one was Ron at this distance.

 _I must not tell lies_ , Harry wrote. The cut in the back of his right hand opened and began to bleed afresh.

 _I must not tell lies_. The cut dug deeper, stinging and burning.

 _I must not tell lies_. Blood trickled down his wrist.

He chanced another glance out of the window. Whoever was defending the goalposts now was doing a very poor job indeed. someone scored twice in the few seconds Harry dared to watch. Hoping very much that the Keeper wasn't Ron.

he dropped his eyes back to the parchment shining with blood.

 _I must not tell lies._

 _I must not tell lies._

He looked up whenever he thought he could risk it; when he could hear the scratching of Umbridge's quill or the opening of a desk drawer. The third person to try out was pretty good, the fourth was terrible, the fifth dodged a Bludger exceptionally well but then fumbled an easy save. The sky was darkening, and Harry doubted he would be able to see the sixth and seventh people at all.

 _I must not tell lies._

 _I must not tell lies._

The parchment was now dotted with drops of blood from the back of his hand, which was searing with pain. When he next looked up, night had fallen and the Quidditch pitch was no longer visible.

"Let's see if you've got the message yet, shall we?" said Umbridge's soft, disgusting voice half an hour later.

She moved towards him, stretching out her short ringed fingers for his arm. And then, as she took hold of him to examine the words now cut into his skin, pain seared, not across the back of his hand, but across the scar on his forehead. At the same time, he had a strange sensation somewhere around his waist.

He wrenched his arm out of her grip and leapt to his feet, staring at her. She looked back at him, a smile stretching her wide, slack, toadlike mouth.

"Yes, it hurts, doesn't it?" she said softly.

He did not answer. His heart was thumping very hard and fast. Was she talking about his hand or did she know what he had just felt in his forehead?

"Well, I think I've made my point, Mr. Potter. You may go."

He picked up his schoolbag and left the room as quickly as he could.

He was surprised when he saw Phil and Dan walking down one of the hallways this late at night. They were talking in hushed tones, so he couldn't really hear what they were saying. Whatever it was, they stopped when they heard his footsteps.

"hey guys," harry caught up with them, moving to stand in the middle of the two. "what you doing?" he asked casually, eying the Slytherin wearily.

"oh, um. We were talking about Muse." Phil answered, his cheeks reddening.

"what's Muse?" harry asked, still keeping his distance from the snake.

It was Dan who answered him this time.

"it's a muggle music band."

Harry was stunned to hear that.

"you listen to muggle music?" as far as he knew, Dan was a pure-blood. Why would he listen to muggle music?

Dan looked at him coldly. The look sent a shiver down Harrys spine.

"not all Slytherins are racist douchebags, you know. You should really try to be more open-minded sometimes."

Harry didn't know how to feel by that answer.

"well!" Phil exclaimed suddenly, breaking the tension in the air. "this is where harry and I turn. Bye, Dan." he waved at the Slytherin as he dragged harry up the stairs, towards the common room.

"Mimbulus mimbletonia," he told the Fat Lady, who swung forwards, revealing the common room.

A roar of sound greeted him. Ron came running towards him, beaming all over his face and spilling Butterbeer down his front from the goblet he was clutching.

"Harry, I did it, I'm in, I'm Keeper!"

"What? Oh- brilliant!" said Harry, trying to smile naturally, with the thoughts of Umbridge still in his mind.

"Have a Butterbeer." Ron pressed a bottle on him. "I can't believe it-where's Hermione gone?"

"She's there," said Percy, who was also swigging Butterbeer and looking _very_ drunk, and pointed to an armchair by the fire. Hermione was dozing in it, her drink tipping unsteadily in her hand.

"Well, she said she was pleased when I told her,'" said Ron, looking slightly put out.

"Come here, Ron, and see if Oliver's old robes fit you," called Katie Bell, "we can take off his name and put yours on instead ..."

As Ron moved away, Angelina came striding up to Harry.

"Sorry I was a bit short with you earlier, Potter," she said abruptly. "It's stressful this managing lark, you know, I'm starting to think I was a bit hard on Wood sometimes." She was watching Ron over the rim of her goblet with a slight frown on her face.

"Look, I know he's your best mate, but he's not fabulous," she said bluntly. "I think with a bit of training he'll be all right, though. He comes from a family of good Quidditch players. I'm banking on him turning out to have a bit more talent than he showed today, to be honest. Vicky Frobisher and Geoffrey Hooper both flew better this evening, but Hooper's a real whiner, he's always moaning about something or other, and Vicky's involved in all sorts of societies. She admitted herself that if training clashed with her Charms Club she'd put Charms first. Anyway, we're having a practice session at two o'clock tomorrow, so just make sure you're there this time. And by the way, you should ask your friend Percy to try out sometime. He looks fit, and I'm willing to let him tryout."

He nodded, and Angelina strolled back to Alicia Spinnet. Harry moved over to sit next to Hermione, who awoke with a jerk as he put down his bag.

"Oh, Harry, it's you… good about Ron, isn't it?" she said blearily..

"Great," said Harry distractedly; if he did not tell somebody soon, he would burst. "Listen, Hermione, I was just up in Umbridge's office and she touched my arm ..."

Hermione listened closely. When Harry had finished, she said slowly, "You're worried You-Know-Who's controlling her like he controlled Quirrell?"

"Well," said Harry, dropping his voice, "it's a possibility, isn't it?"

"I suppose so," said Hermione, though she sounded unconvinced. "But I don't think he can be possessing her the way he possessed Quirrell, I mean, he's properly alive again now, isn't he, he's got his own body, he wouldn't need to share someone else's. He could have her under the Imperius Curse, I suppose ..."

Harry watched Fred, George and Percy juggling empty Butterbeer bottles for a moment. Then Hermione said, "But last year your scar hurt when nobody was touching you, and didn't Dumbledore say it had to do with what You-Know-Who was feeling at the time? I mean, maybe this hasn't got anything to do with Umbridge at all, maybe it's just coincidence it happened while you were with her?"

"She's evil," said Harry flatly. "Twisted."

"who's evil and twisted?" asked Percy as he flopped down next to them, without a drink in his hand this time.

"Umbridge." Harry answered hatefully.

"ah, good ol' Umberbitch. I wonder what my aunt would do when she saw her. I'd pay to see that…" Percy said dreamily, his eyes closing and his body going slack as he fell asleep.

 **Heyo**

 **So, this is the part where I beg for comment. Please, give me comments. They make me want to write.**


	13. Chapter 13

harry

Harry was first to wake up in his dormitory next morning. He lay for a moment watching dust swirl in the ray of sunlight coming through the gap in his four-poster's hangings, and savored the thought that it was Saturday. The first week of term seemed to have dragged on forever, like one gigantic History of Magic lesson.

Judging by the sleepy silence and the freshly cast look of that beam of sunlight, it was just after daybreak. He pulled open the curtains around his bed, got up and started to dress. The only sound apart from the distant twittering of birds was the slow, deep breathing of his fellow Gryffindors. He opened his schoolbag carefully, pulled out parchment and quill and headed out of the dormitory for the common room. He wanted to write a letter to sirius.

Making straight for his favorite squashy old armchair beside the now extinct fire, Harry settled himself down comfortably and unrolled his parchment while looking around the room. The litter of crumpled-up bits of parchment, old Gobstones, empty ingredient jars and sweet wrappers that usually covered the common room at the end of each day was gone, as were all Hermione's elf hats. Wondering vaguely how many elves had now been set free whether they wanted to be or not, Harry opened his ink bottle, dipped his quill into it, then held it suspended an inch above the smooth yellowish surface of his parchment, thinking hard ... but after a minute or so he found himself staring into the empty grate, at a complete loss for what to say.

He could now appreciate how hard it had been for Ron and Hermione to write him letters over the summer. How was he supposed to tell Sirius everything that had happened over the past week and pose all the questions he was burning to ask without giving potential letter-thieves a lot of information he did not want them to have?

He sat quite motionless for a while, gazing into the fireplace, then, finally coming to a decision, he dipped his quill into the ink bottle once more and set it resolutely on the parchment.

Dear Snuffles,

Hope you're OK, the first week back here's been terrible, I'm really glad it's the weekend.

We've got a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Umbridge. She's nearly as nice as your mum. We've also got two new students from America. One of them is really nice, but I'm not sure about the other one. He's in Slytherin.

I'm writing because that thing I wrote to you about last summer happened again last night when I was doing a detention with Umbridge.

We're all missing our biggest friend, we hope he'll be back soon.

Please write back quickly.

Best,  
Harry

Harry reread the letter several times, trying to see it from the point of view of an outsider. He could not see how they would know what he was talking about-or who he was talking to-just from reading this letter. He did hope Sirius would pick up the hint about Hagrid and tell them when he might be back. Harry did not want to ask directly in case it drew too much attention to what Hagrid might be up to while he was not at Hogwarts.

Considering it was a very short letter, it had taken a long time to write; sunlight had crept halfway across the room while he had been working on it and he could now hear distant sounds of movement from the dormitories above. He was even able to identify Percy yelping, presumably being just woken up by someone pushing him out of the bed, though harry didn't know why anyone would wake him up on a Saturday morning.

Sealing the parchment carefully, he climbed through the portrait hole and headed off for the Owlery.

"I would not go that way if I were you," said Nearly Headless Nick, drifting disconcertingly through a wall just ahead of Harry as he walked down the passage. "Peeves is planning an amusing joke on the next person to pass the bust of Paracelsus halfway down the corridor."

"Does it involve Paracelsus falling on top of the person's head?" asked Harry.

"Funnily enough, it does," said Nearly Headless Nick in a bored voice. "Subtlety has never been Peeves's strong point. I'm off to try and find the Bloody Baron... he might be able to put a stop to it... see you, Harry..."

"Yeah, bye," said Harry and instead of turning right, he turned left, taking a longer but safer route up to the Owlery. His spirits rose as he walked past window after window showing brilliantly blue sky; he had training later; he would be back on the Quidditch pitch at last. He reminded himself to ask Percy to try out for Quidditch.

Something brushed his ankles. He looked down and saw the caretaker's skeletal grey cat, Mrs. Norris, creeping past him. She turned lamplike yellow eyes on him for a moment before disappearing behind a statue of Wilfred the Wistful.

"I'm not doing anything wrong," Harry called after her. She had the unmistakable air of a cat that was off to report to her boss, yet Harry could not see why; he was perfectly entitled to walk up to the Owlery on a Saturday morning, right? 

When he entered the Owlery, The straw-covered floor crunched a little as he stepped across tiny animal bones, craning his neck for a sight of Hedwig.

"There you are," he said, spotting her somewhere near the very top of the curved ceiling. "Get down here, I've got a letter for you."

With a low hoot she stretched her great white wings and soared down on to his shoulder.

"Right, I know this says Snuffles on the outside," he told her, giving her the letter to clasp in her beak and, without knowing exactly why, whispering, "but it's for Sirius, OK?"

She blinked her amber eyes once and he took that to mean that she understood.

"Safe flight, then," said Harry and he carried her to one of the windows; with a moments pressure on his arm, Hedwig took off into the blindingly bright sky. He watched her until she became a tiny black speck and vanished.

He was just about to leave when the door to the Owlery opened forcefully, and in came a _royally pissed_ looking Percy, holding a few letters and packages in his hands.

"hi." Harry said automatically.

Percy looked surprised to see him standing there, apparently doing nothing.

"hey," he answered moodily. "does that lil fucker peeves always mess shit up? Cause if so I'm going to have to talk to Nico about him, and it's _not_ going to be pretty. But he deserves it, lil fucker. I came out of the common room to have a good time and I'm honestly feeling attacked right now."

Harry blinked. He remembered the prank nearly headless nick told him about, and he had to try _really_ hard not to laugh at Percy's expression.

"he does tend to prank people. But I don't think Nico can do much about it, the only person he listens to is bloody baron, the Slytherin ghost." Harry explained, shrugging.

Percy smirked a mischievous smirk that sent chills down Harrys spine. "we'll see about that."

"you need help with those?" harry asked, pointing to the letters and the packages Percy was holding.

Percy looked grateful. "please?"

Harry nodded and took some of the packages out of Percy's hand.

"Nico was supposed to help me," Percy explained while putting down the letters and packages on the ground. "but the lil shit gave me the puppy eyes that he _knows_ I can't resist and went to IM his sister. Ugh,"

Harry was confused. He had asked Percy and Nico if they had any siblings and they both had said no.

"I thought he didn't have any siblings?" harry asked suspiciously.

"oh, Hazel is Nico's half-sister. They have the same dad, but not the same mom, and his actual sister passed away a few years ago, so.. I think he panicked.. Or something," Percy seemed a bit choked up, so harry nodded in silence and went back to organizing the letters.

He thought about what Percy just said. Nico had a sister who had passed away, and a half-sister who wasn't here with them in England, so she must live with her mother. Harry noticed that Percy was being uncharacteristically quiet. He must miss his cousin.

"hey, who are these letters for anyway? There seem to be quite a few of them." Harry asked, trying to change the subject.

"oh, for our friends back at America. We could've just IM'd them, but we thought it'd be more fun this way. I don't think half of them have seen a real life owl before," Percy explained, perking up a bit. Harry nodded, he could understand that.

"what's an IM? I know you said it's how American wizards communicate but you never said how it works," harry asked while he was attaching a few letters addressed to the same spot in New York to an owls leg.

Percy looked a bit flustered.

"oh, I, um. I actually don't know how it works," Percy said in an embarrassed tone. "I wasn't really paying attention in class, so.." he trailed off, avoiding eye contact.

Harry nodded, unsure.

They were done and about to leave when the door to the Owlery opened again, only this time it was Theodore Nott, the famous git.

If there was one person in Hogwarts who could challenge Malfoys douchiness, it was Nott.

Nott sneered at them.

"I didn't know you had any friends besides the mudblood and the Weasley, potter. Are you sending letters to your parents' graves?" he mocked.

Harrys blood boiled, but before he could even open his mouth Percy had his wand at Notts throat.

"you're a waste of your mothers pain when she was giving birth to you, you know that? So why don't you go send your little letter to daddy, complaining about the school, and never talk to harry again, yeah?" Percy said all of this really slowly.

Harry was shocked. He didn't know Percy cared about him that much, and the amount of anger Percy was showing.. it was terrifying.

Nott, however, didn't show any emotion, though harry could tell he was at least a bit scared and more than pissed.

"get off me, filthy half blood," Nott snapped. Percy lowered his wand, but he didn't pocket it.

"you're going to pay for this, Jackson. Potter." He spat out and left the Owlery without sending his letter.

It was silent for a bit, until Percy broke it.

"that Mitéra kólo had it coming."

Harry didn't understand what Percy called him, but he suspected it wasn't anything good.

"anyway, what's a mudblood?"

So harry explained all about the blood types and the blood war going on on their way back to the castle.

 **Hi hi.**

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 **Also comment. Please.**


	14. Chapter 14

Nico

The rest of the week passed by without any incidents, thankfully. The only interesting thing that happened was when some murderer who had escaped from the wizarding prison was spotted in London, but Nico couldn't care less.

This quest was getting a bit boring, seeing as his only job was to _observe the wizards_ and _see if they're a threat or not._

He was snapped out of his monochrome thoughts by Malfoy slumping down next to him in the Slytherin table.

Malfoy looked moodier than usual, he had bags under his eyes and his hair didn't look as well tended as usual, so Nico asked him what was wrong.

"father wants me to go back to the mansion for Christmas break." Even his voice was hoarse, like he had been screaming.

Nico was confused. Why would Malfoy be upset about that? From what he knew Malfoy went back to his house for all holidays; why would this one be different?

This was certainly interesting.

"what's wrong with that?" Nico asked cautiously.

Malfoy looked at him for a long moment. His look wasn't cold; it wasn't suspicious or mocking. He looked genuinely tired.

"we have some… guests over that I'm not really fond of."

Nico nodded, although he knew Draco was hiding something. It didn't matter though because soon Percy came into the hall and waved Nico over to the entrance, where he was practically jumping up and down with excitement.

"what's up?" Nico asked as soon as he was in Percys hearing range.

"dude! You know this hogsmeade trip tomorrow right? Well Thalia just IM'd me and told me that her and a few of the hunters are in good ol' Scotland doing something for lady A and that she could come see us in the 'tiny wizard city'!"

Nico perked up. It had been months since he last saw Thalia, and seeing her would be a break from this quest for both he and Percy. Although there was one thing he didn't quite understand.

"that's awesome! But how does thalia know of our quest? Or wizards?"

"huh. I don't know?" the way percy said it made it look more like a question.

"what don't you know?" Harry asked as he and his friends came into the great hall.

"nothing." They said in synch, which was a bit creepy and very suspicious.

"anyway, Percy. What are your plans for hogsmeade tomorrow? You and Nico can come hangout with us if you want. We're going to the three broomsticks –which is a bar- and then were just gonna wander around aimlessly. It'll be fun!" Phil said quickly and cheerfully. Nico wanted to decline, say _'no thank you, but we have other plans.'_ but before he could even open his mouth, Percy said "sure!"

Nico groaned internally but managed to give them a weak smile before turning around and walking towards the Slytherin table. He still hadn't had his precious breakfast.

Malfoy looked at him as he sat down, taking in his change of mood.

"what happened?"

"just found out that my cousin is going to visit us in hogsmead. Bad news is Percy agreed to hang out with potter and his friends, which means I have to socialize with people who think I'm evil."

Malfoy nodded. "you can come hang out with me and Dan if you want, we're going to the three broomsticks."

Nicos ears perked up. Malfoy and potter in the same bar? That's going to be interesting.

"thanks." Nico nodded.

Harry

Harry was nervous.

Hermione had arranged a meeting in one of Hogsmeades old bars for the people who wanted to learn _actual_ defense against the dark arts. Phil had suggested that they visit the three broomsticks first, so that it wouldn't be suspicious when a group of teenagers went straight to an isolated bar. They had also invited Percy and Nico, although harry was very reluctant of inviting a Slytherin to their meeting, he knew that there would be no Percy without Nico. And they needed Percy.

Speaking of Percy..

"get up." Harry grumbled sleepily as he shoved Percy and made a beeline for the bathroom. It was Sunday morning, and they were going to leave for Hogsmeade soon. They couldn't be late.

After about 15 minutes of Percy cursing whoever invented early mornings, they were ready to go meet everyone in the great hall, just as planned.

"you look awfully happy, what's up?" Ron asked Percy as they were going down to the hall.

"oh you'll see." He replied mischievously, which only made harry more suspicious. Percy being happy this early in the morning was not normal. At all.

They met up with Hermione, Phil and Nico at the entrance of the great hall and they all started walking towards Hogsmeade.

Harry noticed that Nico also looked cheerful. On the way, Percy and Nico were talking in hushed voices a few paces in front of them, so they started discussing their plans for the meeting. Hermione said that she had only invited a few people, but harry doubted that.

when they got to the three broomsticks, Phil ordered all of them a butterbeer.

"the hell is a butterbeer? Is it butter flavored beer? Cause that does not sound appealing." Percy rambled as they sat down.

"no, mate. It's not butter flavored beer. It's delicious." Ron answered him.

Harry was about to take the first sip of his precious, sweet butterbeer when the door to the pub _banged_ open, as if someone had kicked it real hard, and a girl came in and yelled "Kelp-head! Sunshine!"

Harry was startled, to say the least. But what shocked him more was when both Percy and Nico yelled "Thalia!" and ran to the girl, engulfing her in a group hug. Harry looked around the table and to his relief, he wasn't the only one who was surprised.

The girl looked around 16, with short, spiky black hair, had a pretty face and almost-punk clothes. The only thing out of place was a silver tiara like thing she had on her hair.

Finally, the group broke apart and they started walking towards the table.

"guys, this is Thalia. She's our cousin, and she's visiting here with a few of her friends. Thalia, these are Harry, Hermione, Ron and phil." Percy introduced them.

Phil was the first one who snapped out of his shock. "welcome to England!"

That seemed to bring everyone out of their trance, and the all greeted her and made room for her to sit. From up close, harry could see that she had electric blue eyes.

"so, Thalia, do you go to the same school as Percy and Nico?" Hermione asked kindly, though harry could see she was wary of Thalia. He couldn't blame her, she had an intimidating aura.

"nope. I'm homeschooled, kind of. My half-sister teaches me stuff as we travel around for her work." Thalia answered smoothly. She then turned to Nico and Percy, ignoring everyone else.

"how are things back home? Everyone alright? How's Reyna? And Jason? Annabeth? Gods, I've missed everyone, I should visit more." She asked rapidly, not waiting for an answer.

Harry was getting more and more confused and he wanted some answers. The only thing he knew was that Annabeth was percys girlfriend.

"who are Reyna and Jason?" he asked before either of them could answer.

"Reyna is our friend and Jason is Thalias brother. And to answer your question, they're both good. Reyna misses you though, IM her when you get the chance." Nico answered.

"what's up with the nicknames?" Phil asked curiously. Harry was wondering that too. Sunshine was not a normal nickname for Nico, after all.

Thalia smiled, as if remembering old memories.

"well, as you all may have noticed by now, although Percy is very smart, he's not the brightest of blokes," she was interrupted by Percy protesting but she shushed him and continued on "and sunshine is a _very_ significant persons nickname for Nico, and it kinda stuck with me."

Harry wondered what Thalia meant by a very significant person. Did Nico have a girlfriend back home?

They continued chatting lightly for a while.

"well, sunshine, kelp-head, lady A told me I can only hang here for around half an hour otherwise we'll fall behind our schedule." Thalia explained as she got up. the boys nodded in understanding and also stood up to say goodbye. Thalia waved the rest of the group goodbye as she left the pub.

As soon as they both sat down, the door to the pub opened again and in walked in Ferret and his sidekick.

At just the sight of them, Harrys blood boiled. They waved at Nico, and Nico waved back but didn't get up to go sit with them. What surprised harry was that the ferret didn't make any snarky comments about harry or his friends. He didn't even look at them. Weird.

"your cousin was really cool. And pretty." Ron told Percy and Nico, ignoring Malfoy.

"yeah, sorry to crush your dreams loverboy, but she doesn't date anyone." Nico said with a slight hint of a smile. Ron looked like Christmas had been canceled. Poor Ron.

"you must miss your friends back home, from what I've heard you guys are all really close." Hermione said gently, though harry guessed she was looking for more information about them.

"yeah. Some… unfortunate things happened a few months ago that made everyone really close and attached to each other. I can't wait for the holidays, where I'll be able to see them again." Percy said wistfully. At this moment, harry remembered something Sirius had said about wanting to meet the mysterious transfer students and blurted out "you guys should come to my godfathers house for Christmas break. You can invite your friends, that way well also get to meet them. And you won't have to travel all the way back to America again!"

Silence.

Everyone was looking at harry incredulously. Percy and Nico's looks were more like 'are you serious right now' And Hermione and Rons looks were like 'you are such a dumbass! Why would you invite them to your godfather's house when he's allegedly a serial killer?!'

The only person not looking at him weirdly was Phil, who was calmly sipping his butterbeer and looking over at Malfoy and his friend.

"that… is very kind of you, harry. Thank you! I'll call them and see if they can come once we get back to the castle." Said Percy after a few moments of silence. Harry nodded and smiled slightly, panicking on the inside.

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